| 15 April 2009
The Red Sox have placed Daisuke Matsuzaka on the 15-day disabled list with a mild right shoulder strain and recalled lefthanded reliever Hunter Jones from Pawtucket.
"Contrary to what Dasiuke said last night, I think he understands it," Francona said. "I think sometimes guys say some things when they're trying to compete. We just want him to be able to be Daisuke, not be part of Daisuke. We'll put him on the DL. We'll have him looked at Friday, and the we'll put our heads together and see what the best way to get him where he can make all his starts and be good."
After speaking with trainer Mike Reinhold, "I don't think there's an injury," Francona said. "It just looks like there's some fatigue. Kind of like last year, where he's got to build it back up and feel good about himself. I don't think he said today he felt real good about himself."
Unfortunately, this news is not surprising to many of us. When Daiuske ws throwing 80 pitches a game for Japan in the WBC... fears of Matsuzaka's arm falling off during the 2009 season started creeping into the heads of Red Sox fans.
But as Tito mentioned above, this smae thing happened last year - just later in the season. Dice-K was 8-0 through 11 starts when he hit the DL in June with a "tired arm/shoulder." There was no damage, and after two weeks of rest, he went 8-2 with a 3.17 ERA in the second half of the season... finishing at 18-3 with a 2.90 ERA.
Bottom Line: This sucks, but I'm going to put my rose-colored glasses and and think positive. With two weeks to get healthy, Dice-K could bounce back and win 15 games... in the meantime, we've got Masterson and/or Buchholz to fill in... you can never have too much pitching, right?
ps. If anyone knows where to score some "injury bug" repelant, I'm prepared to buy a case and ship it to Fenway... this is getting ridiculous.
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