Matsuzaka - high school legend, Olympic hero, Sawamura Award winner as the best pitcher in Japan, World Baseball Classic MVP - has a résumé that already assures him, at age 27, of an exalted place among Japanese baseball heroes.
His place in Red Sox lore? That remains a work in progress, though Matsuzaka, a 15-game winner who threw more than 200 innings and struck out more than 200 batters in his first season, could go a long way toward shaping his legacy tonight, when he faces the Los Angeles Angels in Game 2 of their American League Division Series. The Angels are countering with righthander Kelvim Escobar, who was 18-7 but was shut down for two weeks in September with a tired shoulder.
The Sox lead the best-of-five series, 1-0, after Josh Beckett shut out the Angels on four hits and no walks in one of the great opening acts in Sox postseason annals. Manager Terry Francona was asked yesterday if Matsuzaka could learn from Beckett's performance, one in which he retired 19 consecutive Angels at one point, tying Mike Mussina of the Yankees for the third-longest string of outs in the postseason, behind Don Larsen's perfect game in 1956 and Herb Pennock's 22 in a row for the '27 Yankees.
Sure, Francona said, "if Daisuke wants to throw 97 with a cut, a curveball from hell, and a really good changeup."
Two things should work in Matsuzaka's favor tonight. One is that the Angels have never faced him, an advantage for most pitchers, an even bigger one for a pitcher with as many pitches as Matsuzaka. He made nine starts against teams he faced just once during the regular season. Throw out his game in Texas, in which he pitched despite being ill, and he has been superb in those starts: a 5-3 record and 2.33 ERA, having allowed just 14 earned runs in 54 innings. In five of those starts, he went at least seven innings, including his eight-inning, two-run outing last Friday night against the Minnesota Twins at Fenway Park.
