Matsuzaka took the ball against major league hitters for the first time in his MLB career, drawing the start against the Florida Marlins. The first batter he faced was Hanley Ramirez, former Red Sox farmhand and reigning NL Rookie of the Year. Ramirez grounded out on Matsuzaka’s second pitch, but 2006 Rule 5 steal Dan Uggla followed up with a single.
Personal favorite Jeremy Hermida popped to short on a breaking ball and minor league first baseman Jason Stokes whiffed on a full count. The tally was 15 pitches, 11 for strikes.
(Side note: Yesterday, Matsuzaka threw a bullpen session, which is uncommon here in America. The Red Sox allowed Matsuzaka to do it because it is normal for him.)
His first jam came in the second inning. He walked leadoff hitter Joe Borchard, vying for the center-field job for the Marlins. After whiffing catcher Miguel Olivo, a ground-rule double was blasted by outfielder John Gall that would have scored Borchard if not for it hopping over the fence (shades of Tony Clark…) but Matsuzaka got Scott Seabol staring at strike three and Eric Reed to pop a bunt up. Final tally: 36 pitches, 24 strikes through two innings.
When Scott Seabol worked the count to 2-2, catcher Jason Varitek went to the mound for a chat. Matsuzaka is apparently progressing well in the English lessons he’s taking, because he covered his mouth with his glove to prevent the Marlins from reading his lips.
“[Varitek] said, ‘Let’s throw a slider inside. Can you do it?”‘ Matsuzaka said. “I said, ‘Yes.’ It was in English.”
Varitek said he used sign language to aid the conversation.
“He understood me, which I wasn’t sure,” Varitek said. “He made a good pitch.” (ESPN)
His third inning was nice and clean, encouraging since he was facing batters for the second time. Ramirez shot a full-count liner into Matsuzaka’s glove (and Matsuzaka bowed to the shortstop after catching it), and Uggla and Hermida popped to the mound to close out Matsuzaka’s day, with a tally of 47 pitches, 31 for strikes. He faced a total of 12 batters, and 10 of those batters saw first-pitch strikes. He topped out at 94 mph, and said he was throwing at about 40-50 percent.
The Red Sox went up 6-3 in the top ninth, but surrendered three runs in the bottom to send it to extra frames. The Sox scored eight runs in the top 10th to put the game away 14-6, but the one positive for the Marlins is that they notched all three outs on strikeouts! (Heavy sarcasm.)
The hitting stars for the Red Sox have been minor league journeyman Ed Rogers, right fielder Brandon Moss, and centerfielder Jacoby Ellsbury.
BULLPEN WATCH:
Joel Pineiro replaced Matsuzaka and worked around a two-out walk to set down Stokes, Borchard and Gall. Manny Delcarmen succeeded Pineiro and coughed up two runs on two hits, but K’d a batter. J.C. Romero and Runelvys Hernandez tossed scoreless frames, but Mike Burns gave up a run before Craig Hansen imploded, as he coughed up three runs in the ninth, giving up four hits and striking out none. The bottom of the 10th was a 1-2-3 inning (the second out was a strikeout) by Michael James. Don’t know him? Now you do.
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