Wild about effort
Even in defeat, Masterson strong
NEW YORK - His good friend, Michael Bowden, spent July 4 throwing five shutout innings for Double A Portland. Justin Masterson spent July 4 readying for his first career start in Yankee Stadium.
Masterson yesterday hardly seemed bothered by his surroundings. No matter that 54,990 bodies were bearing down on him, or that Alex Rodriguez and Derek Jeter were in the batter's box. Masterson was his usual poised self on the mound. He had lost, 2-1, but he also won praise and respect.
"I think it was a really good game, watching it," Masterson said. "Seemed like there was a lot of energy, a lot of fun. Great defense, decent pitching, and, there at the end, almost a nice little comeback, which would have been really cool if we would have been able to do that."
In other words, not a lot of fear here. Just a 23-year-old kid having quite a bit of fun.
"I think we expect him to," manager Terry Francona said. "I don't think that we were surprised. I think he enjoys pitching. Sure, it's a first [pitching at Yankee Stadium]. And because of that it is reassuring because the kid didn't overreact to the situation. I think we expect him to be OK.
"He did good. He pitched himself into a little trouble early in the game, pitched himself right out of it against the middle of their order. You know what? He pitched great. He kept his composure, which he always does. But he handled himself really well."
Still, his location betrayed him at times. Though Masterson allowed only six hits over six innings, he also walked two batters and hit three more, becoming the first Sox pitcher in three years to hit that many (Tim Wakefield, against Tampa Bay). His first walk, to Jason Giambi in the second, led to the first run of the game. And the second run, the winning run, came after Masterson had thrown a two-seamer to Jose Molina that traveled inside even though catcher Jason Varitek was set up outside. The sixth-inning wild pitch sent Wilson Betemit to third, allowing him to score on Brett Gardner's sacrifice fly.
"I was a little bit more effectively wild than I wanted to be," Masterson said, smiling. "But that's OK."
And because of that, it wasn't as easy as it could have been. Masterson - who had walked nine in his previous two starts - stranded two runners in the second, then loaded the bases with one out in the third. Jeter sent a single just past Dustin Pedroia, then Masterson walked Bobby Abreu and hit Rodriguez. He struck out Giambi on a slider, then got a stellar diving play from Pedroia to escape unscathed.
Masterson's final inning, the sixth, featured a hit batter, two singles, and that sacrifice fly. But his day was done with just two runs allowed.
"The slider was great, I had great control there," Masterson said. "The sinker was just . . . at times it was good, and then we missed a few, like A-Rod and Molina getting hit were just sinkers that slipped out. We wanted to be on the plate but, aside from that, things were OK. Couple errant changeups, but that made for some more fun."
Even with the Yankees' lefty-heavy lineup - only Jeter, Rodriguez, and Molina bat exclusively from the right side - Masterson was still tough. "I thought we pitched decently effective against lefties today," he said. "I was happy with the approach that we took."
But there's development still to come. It was Masterson's third loss in his last five starts, his second straight, and yet, it was also the eighth time in nine career starts in which he'd thrown at least six innings.
"I'm still making mistakes that I should learn from," Masterson said. "We're getting better in many respects, but from start to start we're just learning tremendously, whether it be how to approach lefties or just how we feel about ourselves, confidence level, keeping the game moving. Everything."
Amalie Benjamin can be reached at abenajmin@globe.com. 