| 15 April 2009
Last night's 6-5 loss to the Athletics couldn't have gone much worse. Here are the "lowlights:"
Daisuke Matsuzaka was awful, allowing five runs on five hits and two wlakd in the first inning. He threw 43 total pitches and never had much zip on the ball. The Sox sent him to the showers and later announced that Dice-K was suffering from arm fatigue... possibly brought on from his time spent in the WBC...
"He didn't communicate too much," Francona said, of Matsuzaka. "We talked to him the other day because he expressed a couple days ago some kind of general soreness or fatigue in the back of his shoulder from the WBC. We thought we talked it through pretty good in Anaheim and he came out tonight and didn't really have a whole lot. We'll re-evaluate him in the morning."
"[Dice-K] came out of the WBC and felt like he had ramped up too quick, all the things we worry about," Francona said. "Then he threw his bullpen [in Anaheim] and assured us he was fine.
"I'm going to have to take some blame there because, after talking to him, I thought that we were in pretty good shape. So if anybody needs to shoulder some blame, it would be me."
Justin Masterson was amazing in relief, pitching four scoreless innings while fanning six batters... including a HUGE strikeout of Jason Giambi in the 4th with the two men in scoring position.
The rest of the relievers were awesome as well. Manny Delcarmen, Ramon Ramirez, Hideki Okajima and Jonathan Papelbon all did their jobs, keeping the A's off teh scoreboard... until Javier Lopez was the only RP left in the pen.
Lopez, who had already pitched on Sunday and Monday, loaded the bases on walks before allowing the RBI infield single by Travis Buck in the 12th. Buck chopped a high bouncer to Pedroia that just didn't come down in time for him to throw to first... but the game never should have lasted 12 innings.
The Red Sox probably had their best chance in the 10th when they loaded the bases for David Ortiz... but he popped out to shallow right to end the inning and the threat. That pretty much sums up the offense right now. Frustrating.
Bottom Line: The Red Sox and A's used all their relievers last night and are set for an afternoon game today... Tim Wakefield will be asked to shoulder the burden and throw at least 7 innings... but some offense would help as well.
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