Without the fanfare that accompanied his every move last summer, Matsuzaka has quietly become one of the American League's stingiest pitchers. He hangs a zero, power walks off the mound like he's trying to catch the last commuter train to Kyoto, then comes back out and does it again.
Last night, he did so with an efficiency that spared manager Terry Francona from answering questions about what's wrong with a guy who is 11-1 with a 2.63 ERA, which would rank him third in the American League in ERA if he had enough innings to qualify.
"He's given up so few hits," Francona said of the Japanese righthander, who allowed just two singles in the first seven innings before the Mariners touched him for three hits and two runs in the eighth.
"He's made it harder sometimes because of his command, but if he keeps winning, I'll gladly answer the questions."
Matsuzaka's streak of 24 1/3 scoreless innings ended in the eighth. Bryan LaHair, the kid from Worcester, opened the inning by lining a single to right, his first major league hit. Ichiro Suzuki, who had rolled out on Matsuzaka's first pitch of the game, then walked twice, doubled to right-center, scoring LaHair. When Jose Lopez followed with an RBI single up the middle, Francona summoned Hideki Okajima, who last pitched nine days ago, to face Raul Ibanez.
Okajima gave the Sox a sample of Oki, vintage '07, inducing Ibanez to hit into a force play and retiring Jose Vidro on a liner to left.
"You want to get everybody on a roll, as many guys as you can," Francona said of Okajima, who rarely has had success this season when entering with runners on base (12 of 17 inherited runners had scored before last night).
While Francona left Okajima in the pen in Anaheim, pitching coach John Farrell said in a recent conversation that Okajima is showing some encouraging signs.
"Because he was mindful of the 162-game schedule after we backed him off last season, he was less aggressive and did not have as much reckless abandon in attacking hitters," Farrell said. "Because of that there was a little less sharpness to his pitches."
