He's getting it under control
MINNEAPOLIS - His performances so far have been fraught with tedium, but Daisuke Matsuzaka's sophomore season is becoming quite impressive.
Shaking off an eight-walk performance last Monday in Detroit, the righthander improved to 6-0 with a seven-inning effort in a 5-2 win over Minnesota last night.
Oh, some of the old problems plagued Matsuzaka, including walking Carlos Gomez with the bases loaded in the second inning. Although he walked three batters in the first two innings, Matsuzaka threw strikes the rest of the way, allowing only six hits in one of his more economical (96 pitches) outings of the season.
Matsuzaka had thrown more than 100 pitches in each of his five previous starts, 109 in just five innings in his last outing. Last night marked only the second time he's pitched seven innings this season.
He had one humorous moment in the third inning when the ball slipped out of his hand in mid-delivery. But he rebounded to strike out Joe Mauer, the AL's leading hitter. Matsuzaka struck out seven, spotting his fastball nicely after his early problems and recording several outs on a very active slider.
Matsuzaka, who uses Masai Takahashi as his interpreter, decided to personally answer the question about his slipped pitch, joking in English, "Good changeup, huh?"
Matsuzaka certainly was better than he'd been in a while, but the celebrated righthander, surrounded by a horde of Japanese media, kept saying that he was far from perfect - despite his 6-0 record and 2.45 ERA.
"I wouldn't say I was 100 percent but I was able to pitch well," he said. "The first run against me was definitely not ideal, but once it was in, it was a new ballgame and I tried to focus on the next batter.
"The obvious difference from my previous three starts was my feel for the ball. It's hard to put it into words, but if I can have that sort of feel going forward, then I'll feel good about myself."
He also said he featured his slider, which had good bite.
"Overall, I wasn't feeling 100 percent, but my slider was good and I felt I was able to build my game around that pitch today," he said.
Asked to elaborate on his multiple references to not being "100 percent," he explained, "I think it's less to do with my physical health and more to do with how I feel about my pitching."
The Red Sox have won the last 10 games started by Matsuzaka, which is the Sox' longest streak since they were 11-0 in Bronson Arroyo starts from Aug. 21, 2004, to April 14, 2005. In Matsuzaka's streak, he is 2-0 with a 2.40 ERA against the Twins, with five walks and 15 strikeouts in 15 innings.
"The team is winning so, obviously, that's great, but it's not something I think about a lot," he said.
And while the Japanese media felt Matsuzaka looked cool and calm and quite relaxed on the mound, Matsuzaka disagreed.
"What I felt was completely opposite of that," he said. "I had to be conscious, really, about keeping my elbow up, but I feel I did adjust well during the game, but I felt my pitching was unstable throughout the game."
The Sox will take that kind of unstable for the rest of the season.
