NEW YORK -- When Yankee Stadium began to close in on him last night, Daisuke Matsuzaka didn't have the same option as Tom Werner, the Red Sox chairman who tells the story of how he once left the Bronx in full throttle during a Sox-Yankees game that was going badly , hopped in his car, and drove back to Boston.
"I think I got home at 4 in the morning," Werner said. "It felt like leaving the scene of a crime."
For one inning last night, Matsuzaka was on the verge of being mugged by the Yankees, who extended the Japanese righthander through 41 excruciating pitches in a fourth inning in which they scored four times on three walks and three singles, and had the Sox warming up J.C. Romero in the bullpen. All with 55,005 in the Stadium on their feet, roaring.
"When he reached that last out, we were basically hitter to hitter," pitching coach John Farrell said.
But there would be no retreat, no surrender, no sayonara. Matsuzaka changed out of his sweat-soaked T-shirt, just as he had done in Toronto under similar circumstances, and stuck around long enough to see the Sox stick it to the Yankees, 11-4, sending the Bombers to their seventh straight loss while dropping New York's record to 8-13, 6 1/2 games behind the Sox and in sole possession of last place in the AL East.
"He perspires quite a bit," Farrell said of Matsuzaka's quick-change artistry. "Maybe he was also wiping the slate clean and going back out. But that's just speculation on my part."
Whatever the motivation, it worked. The Sox gave Matsuzaka a chance to rest in the fifth, which became Andy Pettitte's personal sweatbox, the Yankees lefthander giving the lead back on three walks, a wild pitch, and base hits by Kevin Youkilis and David Ortiz. Matsuzaka came out and set down six batters in order, the bullpen did the rest, and the Sox, whose playoff hopes last season evaporated when they were swept in a five-game series by the Yankees in August, had their sixth straight win against the Yankees, dating to Sept. 16.
And while the breakfast crowd in Japan was focused on the first stateside confrontation between the Monster (Matsuzaka) and Godzilla (Hideki Matsui), a kid who didn't have to cross the pond to find friends and family celebrated his homecoming in unexpected fashion.
Sox shortstop Julio Lugo, who was born in the Dominican Republic but grew up in Brooklyn, hit a single, double, and home run, scored three runs, and stole two bases.
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