Game Date: April 5, 2007
Red Sox 4, Royals 1 / Box Score
WP: Matsuzaka (1-0), LP: Greinke (0-1)
Royal Home Runs: DeJesus (1)
Royals Record: 1-2
I wondered how long it would take some national press figure to question the validity of Matsuzaka's great performance this afternoon in Kauffman Stadium. The answer: not long.
Not longer than an hour after the game, SI.com had a poll up asking, "What did you think of Daisuke Matsuzaka's first start?" The options were, "Dominant," "Pretty good," and "It's just the Royals, not impressed." As of this writing, 35% say dominant, 40% say pretty good, and the remaining 25% say it's just the Royals.
I have no idea what Dice-K is going to do for the remainder of the season, but if I had to guess, he's going to have a good year. He keeps the ball down. He has so many pitches that I don't think anybody can really label them all. And he seems to have a knack for knowing which pitch to throw in any given situation.
Zack Greinke didn't look too bad this afternoon either. He went seven innings (101 pitches), giving up just one earned run on eight hits and a walk. He also struck out seven guys. And he frustrated a lot of Red Sox hitters with change ups at the knees for called strikes.
Unfortunately, the Royals just couldn't get anything going against Red Sox pitching. David DeJesus looked the most comfortable, going 2-for-4 with a home run. Esteban German was 2-for-4. And Alex Gordon finally got his first hit of the season. Oddly, Bell sat Mike Sweeney and put Emil Brown in the DH spot.
Even though the Royals lost, I enjoyed watching this game. I love watching pitchers dueling and for the better part of seven innings, that's what happened.
The Tigers roll into town to kick of a new series tomorrow night. Jorge De La Rosa goes against Justin Verlander.
3 comments:
If you look at it from a different prospective, Greinke actually had just as good of an outing as Dice-k. Same ERA, same amount of innings pitched, the only glaring diffrence is who got the W and who got the L.
Yeah, Greinke was tough. It was nice to see wasn't it?
I am big on Greinke. Totally profesh!
But I must have rolled my eyes til they crossed as every new inning saw the opponents first batter get on base.
Frustrating...though that wasn't why they lost.
Seven strong innings of pitching and then it went flaccid.
A tuff call at 2nd...coulda/shoulda been called safe. And that double following sure seemed wasted after that.
Gordon sure looked confused at the plate and it appeared to carry over to the field.
God , I hope he doesn't start pressing.
Over-all...it was a pretty good series.
Post a Comment