Boston, Dice-K shut down Athletics 2-1
The Boston Red Sox beat the Oakland Athletics Monday night in Oakland 2-1, as the Sox pitching staff held the Athletics to just three hits all night. Red Sox starting pitcher Daisuke Matsuzaka allowed just one earned run on two hits in six and two-thirds innings, a step up from his usual output with an ERA of 4.29. Matsuzaka didn't give up a first-inning run this outing, which is more of a surprise than anything: in 16 starts, he's allowed 16 first-inning runs. The win puts the Red Sox at 53-40, just six games behind the New York Yankees in the powerful AL East. The loss snapped a five-game winning streak for the Athletics, who now sit at 46-47 and are eight games behind the AL West-leading Texas Rangers. Oakland missed their first chance to go above .500 for the first time in a month.
Red Sox manager Terry Francona liked what he saw from Matsuzaka Monday night as well.
"He looked to me real sharp right from the beginning, I think that was real obvious," he said. "That was real crisp. There was a lot of power to his pitches and he was down when he wanted to be. He misfired a couple of times but that was pretty good stuff."
Oakland's starting pitcher Ben Sheets pitched a quality start by letting up just two runs and seven hits in six and two-thirds innings, but got no run support to help his cause. In fact, Sheets has only gotten one run of support in nine of his 20 starts this season, which makes his 4-9 record look a little better.
"I thought I was below average tonight," Sheets said. "We mixed our pitches well and threw some different things in there, made up two or three new pitches, four or five different arm angles."
The Red Sox scored their two runs in the fourth inning after Eric Patterson — who was recently traded from Oakland to Boston — led off with a triple to break an 0-for-11 streak. Patterson scored on a David Ortiz sac-fly, and Adrian Beltre hit a solo shot for their second run. The Athletics' sole run came off of a Rajai Davis home run in the third inning.
Matsuzaka throws a gem
He escaped his typical first inning woes and was on target with mostly all of his pitches. He threw 19 first-pitch strikes to the 24 batters he faced and struck out six while only walking two. Catcher Kevin Cash knew it would be a good night for the Red Sox after Matsuzaka got through the first couple of batters.
"That's Dice's whole M.O. Getting ahead and throwing strikes," he said.
Matsuzaka is now 7-3 on season,
"There are countless small improvements that I would want to make throughout my outing," Matsuzaka said. "But this is the type of pitching I really want to continue to do as the season goes on."
Oakland offence struggles
Oakland's three hits and one run isn't surprising, as their offence has not been perfect all season. They are ranked 25th in runs batted in and 27th in home runs with 61. The Athletics had a few opportunities that they couldn't capitalise on, including in the eighth inning with two runners on. But Kurt Suzuki grounded out before getting anyone home, and Jonathan Papelbon came out to shut the door on them with a perfect ninth.
Oakland's manager Bob Geren said the Athletics couldn't quite peg Matsuzaka's fast ball, as he had a couple of variations going all throughout the game.
"He had some cutters, he had a slow big breaking ball, a slider,” he said. “He just didn't leave a lot of balls in the middle of the plate to hit."
Tags: