We go back to Nov. 14 when the Red Sox outbid the Mets, Yankees, and Rangers for the right to negotiate with Daisuke Matsuzaka.
Thirty-two regular-season and two postseason starts later, John W. Henry gets to see why he opened his wallet for the Japanese righthander.
Game 7 of the American League Championship Series is tonight and Dice-K gets a chance to redeem himself after two lackluster postseason starts. It's the biggest moment in this young man's career.
He will have 37,000-plus fans hanging on his every pitch, cheering every out. Dice-K's been on the mound in big situations before, including a three-game span in the Summer Koshien high school tournament in which he won a 254-pitch, 17-inning game, came on in relief in the second, and fired a no-hitter in the third. Just two years ago he was on the mound for the deciding game when Japan beat Cuba, 10-6, to win the World Baseball Classic.
"I can't make a simple comparison to those other games," Matsuzaka last night on his way out the door after Boston dispatched Cleveland, 12-2, in Game 6. "But I just hope that I can pitch the same way as I did in those other opportunities."
Matsuzaka is an honorable young man who has been beside himself for his poor performance in the playoffs so far. That was reflected in his actions after he'd lost Game 3 of the ALCS last week at Jacobs Field. He sat despondent at his locker for more than an hour. He stopped staring only twice - once to eat, once to give a brief statement concerning his performance - before returning to his locker.
Matsuzaka downplayed his mood last night saying, "Whether or not we had won or lost, immediately following the game is a very important time period for me, although I might have appeared very upset, I wasn't as upset as everybody thought."
One of the most significant things Matsuzaka did this week was have a long conversation with Curt Schilling, last night's winner.
"It's nothing very complicated," Matsuzaka said. "It's really very simple what we talked about. I just need to apply that in a simple way to my pitching."
It remains to be seen if Schilling's words of wisdom can help Matsuzaka tonight. If Dice-K's recent performances are any indication, the Red Sox could be staring winter in the face. It's an awful lot to put on the pitcher, but it's what you have to put on him. The starters in this series have been hugely important. Fausto Carmona was terrible again last night and it cost the Indians a chance to wrap up the series. Dice-K can ill afford to do what Carmona has done.
