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How Good Is He? Angels-Sox Gamer VII

It's the question we've been asking about Daisuke Matsuzaka since the Red Sox won the bidding for him in December 2006. We still don't know the answer. Maybe we'll get an idea of the answer tonight, as he returns from his two-month-long spring retraining. Comment away!

70 replies on “How Good Is He? Angels-Sox Gamer VII”

No kidding Paul. As long as he doesn’t give up any runs I don’t care how deep he goes. He’s our #4/5 starter right now.
Weird, Daisuke throwing his warmup pitches before this inning from about 7 feet behind the pitcher’s mound.

Wow, he gets into trouble with runners at the corners and then strikes out Mathis and Figgins on 7 total pitches.
That’s the Daisuke we like to see. And he’s only at 72 pitches after 5.0!

A few hard-hit balls that inning but Daisuke gets out of it unscathed again.
6.0IP 3H 0ER 2BB 5K. Absolutely fantastic. He’s at 87 pitches, but since our bullpen is ridiculously rested I doubt we’ll see him go out for the 7th.

AGonz singles, then Ellsbury sac-bunts… except it’s such a good bunt that it’s a single. Hells yeah.

HAH SUCK IT ANGELS, WE DO SMALL-BALL BETTER THAN YOU!
Pedroia bunts, Lackey throws past 3rd. 1-0 Sox, runners at 2nd and 3rd with no outs.

Daisuke gets ahead 0-2, then walks the batter. Tito quickly out there to pull him.
I don’t think he should have started the inning at all, but whatever. A lead is a lead, and he did great tonight.

Daniel Bard what in the holy hell are you doing trying to bare-hand a hard-hit ball up the middle? YOU’RE THE CLOSER OF THE FUTURE DAMNIT

IBM, I’m not too impressed with Zambrano… he hasn’t had a season with an ERA+ over 118 in 4 years, and that’s pitching in the NL. Plus he’s been injured lately, and he’s been known to not get along with teammates.
If he’s cheap, sure. But he’s not what he used to be.

I don’t think he’d be cheap, Ath.
… DREW WITH A FUCKING TRIPLE!!!! …
Hendry signed him to a huge multi-year deal, I think before last season.
That’s one of the reasons I’m surprised to hear the cubs new ownership wants to keep Hendry. He signed Zambrano, Soriano and … BAY WITH A SMASH OFF THE WALL TO SCORE DREW BUT HE’S OUT AT SECOND!!! 3-0!!! … Milton Bradley to huge delas, and all have been busts.

Yeah, I’m sure a big-market team would snag him… maybe the Mets, or Dodgers. The Sox seem pretty good regarding their rotation for now, with Beckett-Lester-Buchholz-Daisuke-Wakefield set for 2010 on paper.

Papelbon just not in it tonight I guess since it’s no longer a save situation.
How encouraging was this start by Daisuke? I mean, wow. He was even somewhat *gasp* efficient! If that’s the Matsuzaka we’ve got, the postseason is looking mighty good indeed.

And the Angels run into an out to end the game. For all their alleged prowess with small ball, every time they play the Red Sox in a key game, it sure seems like the Sox outplay them at small ball, and it’s not even close.
Two key bunts and Drew legging out the extra base for the Sox, two botched bunt plays on defense and running into the last out of the game with the woulda-been tying run coming to the plate for the Angels. Small-ball FAIL.

Paul, I have been thinking the same thing.
This is a huge win. Dice-K was indomitable. Big Vic and Yooks were not available. Never mind that Texas is losing and the WC lead grows. Suddenly, everything is lining up.
…
HUGE props to Dice-K, taking Brady off the front page.
Red Sox < Optimism.

“Gammo on BBTN was so excited about Dice-K you could see his erection.”
Now that is a slightly disturbing image.

Saw the replay, krueg. Don’t know the whole backstory, but it looked like Posada and Carlson lost their better judgment for a moment…
And I just found out that Mayo is out for half the season. Shit.

It was a BRAWL…too hard to explain while we are coming back. Dudes have black eyes and bruises. It was AWESOME!!!

Shelley Duncan = the enforcer. This was no empty-the-benches-and-everyone-stand-around deal. It was a hockey game.

of course, in the middle of it all (mostly trying to separate guys but still very much in the injury- and discipline-prone middle of the melee) were CC, Jeter, Teixeira, and Pettitte in additon to Posada himself. Would be a great time of the year for one of those guys to get injured.

kudos to sandy duncan for doing what he does best. amazing he’s never stuck with the club for more than a few weeks at a time. doesn’t every team need a dale hunter type? hey sandy, if the club won’t give you a shot…take a cheap one.
On Posada
“As he ran past Carlson, he gave him a little shove with his elbow. It was very unsportsmanlike. The pitcher wasn’t looking for anything like that and he ran past him, didn’t say anything and just gave him a shove with his elbow. It was very unsportsmanlike. It was cheap shot,” umpire Jim Joyce said.

I think the umpire had it right, Posada clearly throws an elbow when he walks passed him. Having said that, Carlson was on the wrong side of home plate: the throw was coming from right field, so he should have been backing up the throw on the other side. So he was sort of asking for it.

Carlson also clearly threw at posada minutes earlier. Regardless, jorge has been around long enough to ignore such things, esp when the yanks are in the homestretch and toronto has nothing to lose.

I just noticed that the Sox don’t have an off-day for the rest of the season. But at least they don’t have to have a mid-September trip out West!

Brawl = TURNING POINT!!! ;)
That was awesome. Now, if any of the Yankees has gotten hurt? That would have sucked.
As a diehard hockey fan, seeing a brawl like that by my team was great. Talk about a team bonding experience!!!
Jorge will get suspended so he can rest up for a few days, no biggie.

“Jorge will get suspended so he can rest up for a few days, no biggie”
If this means more Cervelli in these last two weeks I’m all for it. Love that guy.

Krueg, does a team with the best record in baseball really need a turning point? If that means they’re taking a turn for the worse, then I’m all for it! ;-)

Bite your tongue Ath…you guys are doing fine and an ALCS matchup is on the horizon. (hopefully, if we make it…knock on wood)
LOVE Cervelli IH…hopefully he gets a few starts.

Five in the loss column. It would be a miracle, semi-historic (in a non-consequential way due to the WC), but man, can you imagine if this Sox’ hot streak goes on and on?

Absolutely. The Sox are a great team, why wouldn’t they roll the jokers they play the rest of the way?

“Five in the loss column. It would be a miracle, semi-historic (in a non-consequential way due to the WC), but man, can you imagine if this Sox’ hot streak goes on and on?”
I know I sound like a complete yahoo by admitting this, but it certainly is a thought in my mind that the division is not out of the question, longshot it might be. Unlikely but still realistic. It would take a collosal NY flop, which doesn’t seem likely with that offense. But since when have we been above wild speculation here at YFSF?

but man, can you imagine if this Sox’ hot streak goes on and on?
What’s so impressive about a wild card berth? ;)

“I know I sound like a complete yahoo by admitting this, but it certainly is a thought in my mind that the division is not out of the question, longshot it might be. ”
The Rangers are closer to the Sox than the Sox are to the Yanks. It would take a colossal flop by the yanks indeed.

If I were in your shoes I;d feel the same way IBM though I agree with others that it would take much more than the Sox playing great. It would also require the Yanks to flop. Having said that, we are starting Chad Gaudin tonight and have 3 more against the Sox so anything is possible. I do think the scariest thing about the Sox is not that they are any better than the Yanks (in my view they are very evenly matched teams) but that they are starting to hit on all cylinders at precisely the right moment and also that it includes better 1-3 (and 1-4) pitching over the past month than the Yanks have gotten.

“The Rangers are closer to the Sox than the Sox are to the Yanks.”
Yes and no. Sox trail Yanks by 6.5, but 5 in the loss column. The Rangers trail the sox by 5.5, but 6 in the loss column. Semantics? Maybe.
Now, all that said, I am absolutely fantasizing. It really would boil down to a collosal flop by the Yanks, because I really, really doubt the Sox will go balls to the wall to try to win the division. My guess is they just want to get to the postseason healthy and rested, with the pitchingt lines up. Wild card entrants have a very good track record in the postseason.

“I do think the scariest thing about the Sox is not that they are any better than the Yanks (in my view they are very evenly matched teams) but that they are starting to hit on all cylinders at precisely the right moment …”
Horse, that’s exactly the way I see it.

Lastly, it is crazy how my pessimism has turned to optimism in the matter of about 9 days, since the Sox lost 3 of 4 here. I do believe that what I saw at Comiskey Sept. 6, the game they won in the series, is what we should prepare for in the playoffs.

My guess is they just want to get to the postseason healthy and rested, with the pitchingt lines up.
I agree 100%. Hypothetical: what if the Sox are only 1-2 games back with a week left to play. Do they push for the division, or set up their rotation for the playoffs and rest key guys? I doubt it will happen, but it would be an interesting situation for Tito.

They rest the players. If memory serves me correctly, they did this in 2005, when they were in the lead for the division, knowing they already were guaranteed the Wild Card.

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