It didn't take long to get in a zone

Facing the Boston College Eagles, who have been hitting in the indoor bubble in Chestnut Hill, Matsuzaka dazzled a sellout crowd and a live television audience back home in New England. In two innings of shutout ball, he threw 25 pitches, 19 for strikes. He gave up one hit, a first-pitch double to leadoff man Johnny Ayers, struck out three, and looked about as good as a pitcher can look March 2 against a college team. He was the winning pitcher in the Sox' 9-1 victory.

"I was not nervous at all," said Matsuzaka, through an interpreter.

"He looked good," said Jason Varitek, who will be tethered to the Japanese righthander between now and October. "He seems as poised as anybody. He's got a happy personality about him."

Late in the afternoon, there were 14 camera folk lined up in front of the Red Sox dugout, lenses trained on the area near the left-field foul pole. Matsuzaka was behind the wall, warming up in the bullpen, and the shooters were perched to take his photograph when he emerged from the door next to the Ninety-Nine restaurant billboard.

There was a sense of giddiness throughout the ballpark, which only hours earlier featured a 10-inning game between the Red Sox and Blue Jays. That game featured the spring debut of Manny Ramírez (who fouled out to the catcher and walked), but nobody made much of a deal about Planet Manny. This was Dice-K Friday. All the way.

"Cameras, a lot of interest," Sox manager Terry Francona said. "For my sake, I hope he gets 'em out because if he doesn't I'll have to come in here and answer a million questions about why we signed him."

No problem with that.

BC players were looking for first-pitch fastballs. Curt Schilling threw fastballs on 18 of his 19 deliveries in his initial outing Wednesday, and Josh Beckett threw first-pitch strikes to all seven Northeastern batters he faced Thursday.