Spring Training Update – 3/11

And the first pitch is a 90 mph strike. Daisuke Matsuzaka is facing AL East competition for the first time today as he takes on the Baltimore Orioles. More on the game and Matsuzaka’s start as the game progresses.
Matsuzaka made the Orioles hitters look absolutely foolish in the first. He had a 1-2-3 inning striking out Melvin Mora and Jay Gibbons. Unfortunately, that was nearly half an hour ago (Steve Trachsel’s pitching). Both Julio Lugo and Kevin Youkilis began the bottom of the inning with singles to the outfield. David Ortiz then nearly then hit a 3-run homer that was knocked down by the wind and caught at the wall. The Red Sox unfortunately didn’t manage to score even though they would eventually load the bases.
Matsuzaka nearly had another 1-2-3 inning in the top of the second. He got Tejada to pop up but then got a glove on a ball headed to the shortstop and the ball fell into no man’s land between the pitcher and shortstop. The hitter, Ramon Hernandez was credited with an infield hit. To this point Matsuzaka has been able to get outs on his high fastball up in the zone. That may change however as batters become more familiar with him.
And Matsuzaka may be learning that lesson sooner rather than later. He just gave up his first run of the spring on a fastball up in the zone that was hit out of the park. Matsuzaka then allowed a single to our old friend Adam Stern. Stern swiftly stole second on a high throw by Jason Varitek. He was stranded there however as Matsuzaka then shut the door, retiring the next 3 batters in a row with 2 pop ups and a strike out. Ironically, he ended the inning with a fastball up in the zone that was popped up into shallow right field.
The 4th inning was ugly. Matsuzaka began by giving up a bloop single to Miguel Tejada. He then got what should have been a double play ball but he threw it into center field. Tejada scored on a sac fly and then Matsuzaka gave up another home run. There has been a marked difference between the first inning and the innings afterwards. Perhaps the long wait did effect him, perhaps it didn’t. Whatever it was, he simply didn’t have it today. After the first his velocity was down a bit and his control was average. It will be interesting to see how he responds in his next outing.
Matsuzaka’s final line was 4 IP, 6 H, 3 ER, 0 BB, 3 SO