The First Line of Defense

Daisuke Matsuzaka is by no means a Yankee killer. In 2 games against the bombers, Matsuzaka has thrown 13 innings, 13 hits, 10 earned runs, 5 walks, while recording 14 strikeouts. Somehow, Daisuke, a solid bullpen, and a killer offense helped the Sox win both of those games.

Daisuke's last 3 games have resulted in Sox losses, two of them of the "tough luck" variety. He seems to have his control back in check, but the offense doesn't seem to be lining up. The embattled Yankee starting rotation (and the prospect of locking up the division) may motivate the hitters to string it together for him.

With little left of the '07 season, let's take a look at the big picture:

26 Starts
13 Wins
10 Losses
170 IP
172 K
3.72 ERA
1.27 WHIP
.240 BAA

Daisuke has eaten innings, and been effective striking out batters, while having sporadic control issues. He will surpass the Sox' individual strikeout and innings tops from last year. He's projected to have a line like 2006 Curt Schilling. While a bit pricey, the investment in Daisuke Matsuzaka should prove to be a good one if he continues to adjust and adapt to the MLB.

Daisuke Matsuzaka: Stud

In his last 4 starts, Daisuke Matsuzaka has allowed one run or less. In the two starts before those, he gave up less than 2 runs each game. In the last month he's thrown 42 Innings, with an impressive 51 strikeouts, and a WHIP at an even 1.

Matsuzaka is falling into exactly the type of groove that the Sox front office had hoped he would. Now that he is getting a healthy amount of run support, his stellar outings are worth a bit more. With a healthy AL East lead in hand, Matsuzaka's dominance gives the Sox the benefit of allowing Schilling as much time as he needs to get healthy.

After 2 outstanding 8-inning efforts in a row, Daisuke will be matched up against Tigers young gun Nate Robertson on Sunday.

Big-Time Saturday

Coming off of the strongest outing of his short MLB career, Daisuke Matsuzaka will be facing off against Braves veteran John Smoltz on Saturday. Matsuzaka scattered 6 hits, no walks, and only gave up one run (on a solo homer) while striking out five in a complete game domination of the AL-Champ tigers. Daisuke's MO in Japan was having control, low numbers of walks, and giving up runs on the homer rather than a string of hits. Daisuke's return to form with the Red Sox is encouraging, as he's starting to look a lot like the pitcher they scouted in Japan.

Smoltz injured the pinky on his throwing hand Monday on a fielding play, and still may be a bit of a question mark on Saturday. Smoltz looks every bit as good as his 5-2, 3.19 era, 1.3 whip and around 8 k/9 would suggest, but he may not on his game Tomorrow.

Annnnnd There's The Outing We Were Looking For

Only the 4th matchup of two Japanese-born pitchers in the MLB, Tomo Ohka and Daisuke Matsuzaka faced off at the Rogers Centre in Toronto. Daisuke was on fire, giving up only one run, and scattering 5 hits and 3 walks over 7 innings. His control was ON, and he never fell too far into the one-inning ruts we've seen him fall into in recent history.

Lots of rumors seemed to be flying around about why he looked so solid on the mound this time around:
1. He took his side session the day before his start, not the usual middle day
2. He changed his conditioning regimen
3. He threw over 100 warmup pitches... in addition to starting sprints 6 hours before the game, and across the outfield long-toss.

The only one that seems to have been confirmed is number 3... it seems like Daisuke just needs to push himself to the limit to perform better. This might not be the healthiest routine for an entire season, though.

Daisuke versus Ichiro: Redux

Tonight, the infrequently posting (read: building a database) We Love Daisuke team will be going to Fenway to see Daisuke pitch against the Mariners, again. We originally had bought tickets to the April 12th game on spec that Daisuke's debut would be pushed back a day by rain. It wasn't, and our sponsor Ace Ticket got us the hookup for the 11th. Thursday got rained out, and now luck has delivered us a second chance to see one of the more exciting matchups Matsuzaka will face. Ichiro looked overmatched last time, but has been doing better as the season has gone on - it should be more interesting this time.

Pitching Matchup:

RHP Daisuke Matsuzaka (3-2, 4.36 ERA)
vs
LHP Horacio Ramirez (2-1, 4.41 ERA)

Horacio Ramirez and his 4.13 career era came over from Atlanta, trying to bolster a Gil Meche-less Seattle rotation. He's been seriously underachieving this year (in the eyes of the Mariners) and when Felix Hernandez comes back, this guy might be looking at a stint in AAA if he can't get his act together.

Tonight could be a good one, folks.

Daisuke's Arsenal

Tonight is Daisuke's first pitching appearance at Fenway Park. We Love Daisuke will be on hand to take pictures and provide in-depth analysis of his second start. Check back tomorrow! In preparation for his home debut, let's discuss the pitches he uses.

Daisuke Matsuzaka uses a combination of eight pitches to get the job done. Daisuke has an amazing amount of control over how his pitches move after they are thrown. The gyroball is not one of these, but he does have a couple of pitches that have similar movement.

1. He has a a four-seam fastball that tops out at 96 mph. His four seamer has some slight late movement, and he can really place this pitch well.

2. Daisuke's 2-seam fastball is slightly slower, but breaks more than the 4 seam. He has used this pitch effectively to freeze and strike out hitters thus far.

3. The cut fastball Daisuke uses appears similar in delivery to his 2-seam, but is slower and breaks more sharply.

4. His curveball is your usual 12-6 drop that is usually seen in the MLB. He is very adept at effectively fooling batters into swinging at this pitch just before it scrapes the dirt.

5&6. Daisuke's slider is also a garden-variety slider that breaks away from the hitter (in either direction, as he also throws a reverse slider, which is technically a different pitch) and appears to be precisely the same delivery as his fastball.

7. The type of splitter that Daisuke throws has a healthy amount of forward-rotation, and gives him another option on the speed of his pitch with the same fastball delivery.

8. The Shuuto - erroneously called a reverse screwball, or even the elusive "gyroball", this is Daisuke's secret weapon. According to wikipedia: "The shuuto begins as a fastball, taking a straight path toward the plate. However, the pitcher has put a slight spin on the ball, such that as the ball's velocity decreases, it "rolls over" and drifts back toward the batter." The spin on the ball not only makes it go slower as it approaches the batter, but it also drifts diagonally downward as well.

What this all amounts to is Daisuke's amazing command of where a baseball goes and how it gets there. While Daisuke is still feeling out the dimensions of the MLB strike zone, he is well on the way to owning it. Picture from New York Times.

Living Up To The Hype

108 Pitches, 74 Strikes, 7 innings, 6 Hits, 1 Walk, 1 Run, 10 Strikeouts. Daisuke Matsuzaka's Red Sox debut was very impressing. Only running into trouble at two points in the game, Daisuke seemed in control throughout the game.

What was most impressive about Matsuzaka's debut was the movement on his pitches. The KC hitters were whiffing pretty hard, and usually nowhere near where the ball ended up. As the Bill Simmons noted, it looked like Daisuke was throwing a whiffle ball on a windy day. While there was no gyroball per-se, there were a number of lively breaking pitches.

Picture from Boston Herald.