Playing catch-up with Matsuzaka

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. -- Doug Mirabelli was going through an evaluation of some of the pitchers on the Red Sox staff a few days ago in Cleveland when he got to Daisuke Matsuzaka. He called the starter "more polished" than some of his teammates, but then he stopped. He threw in the caveat that he had yet to catch Matsuzaka, so he wouldn't exactly be the expert on the quality of his stuff.

That is true no longer. With Jason Varitek catching all 12 innings of Saturday night's game against the Devil Rays, the day game following the night game yesterday fell to Mirabelli, who had caught Matsuzaka only a limited time in spring training.

What does he think of Matsuzaka now?

"It was what I thought it was going to be," Mirabelli said after a 5-2 loss to Tampa Bay. "He mixed up all his pitches. I watch him from the side all the time, but it's one of those things when you're back there, 'Does the ball look like you think it does?' And it did, pretty much."

Mirabelli added there weren't any communication snags, despite the limited time they had to prepare. Matsuzaka said he found out when he entered the clubhouse yesterday morning that Mirabelli would be behind the plate. Not that it seemed to either one to be much different.

"The meeting I had with him today was very similar to what I would normally have with Varitek," Matsuzaka said through an interpreter. "I don't think there were any problems in particular."

With the catcher, he meant. Not in the outing in its entirety. The biggest regret, from Mirabelli, was a splitter in the seventh to Dioner Navarro that ended up in the right-field seats, the one that resulted in Matsuzaka taking the loss in his first chance to throw to Boston's backup catcher.

"That happens," Mirabelli said. "Just unfortunate. He's throwing the ball really well and he's making some big pitches, has a good game going at that point. One bad split and he's losing the game."

Mike Timlin hadn't pitched since Monday's game against Cleveland, which is why it was so odd he wasn't warming up in Saturday night's 12-inning game against the Devil Rays. But Timlin's shoulder had started to ache over the past week (though it has improved), so the team wanted to hold him out until it was better. "It was a little bit achy, so we decided to kind of lay off, give it some time off so it doesn't flare up," Timlin said. With the offday today, Timlin expected to be back in the bullpen rotation tomorrow, when the Sox start their brief homestand. Neither Timlin nor manager Terry Francona said they anticipated Timlin going on the disabled list. "As much as no one likes to admit it, especially me, I'm getting older," Timlin said. "I don't rebound as fast as I would like to rebound. There are times that I need a little more time." . . . Francona confirmed David Ortiz broke his bat Saturday night on a checked swing, and the ex-major leaguer joked, "That would not [have been] on my résumé."

Manny Ramírez's solo homer in the eighth came off Gary Glover, not Scott Kazmir. Ramírez is hitting just .118 (4 for 34) off the lefthanded starter, including 0 for 3 with a strikeout yesterday . . . Wily Mo Peña went 2 for 3 after having gone 4 for 5 in his last start, Thursday. He singled and doubled in his first two at bats . . . The Devil Rays ended an eight-game losing streak, in which they had allowed 83 runs. "I've had enough of these," Devil Rays manager Joe Maddon said. "It's about time we get some eight-game win streaks going." Akinori Iwamura described the losing streak as like "going through a long tunnel." . . . Carlos Pena hit his 25th home run of the season . . . The attendance for the series was 104,005 fans (many of the Red Sox variety). It was the highest three-game total at the Trop since August of 1999, against Cleveland. That included the game in which Wade Boggs got his 3,000th hit . . . Kazmir lowered his ERA against the Sox to 2.58 . . . Iwamura went 2 for 3 against Matsuzaka, improving his lifetime mark against his countryman to 5 for 15, 3 for 7 this season . . . The Sox hit back-to-back homers for the fifth time this season . . . With six strikeouts, Matsuzaka passed Dave Morehead (with whom he was tied at 136) to become the Sox rookie with the fourth-most strikeouts in a season. Next on the list are Dick Radatz (1962) and Dutch Leonard (1913), who each recorded 144.

Amalie Benjamin can be reached at abenjamin@globe.com.