10-16-2007, 09:46 PM
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#1 (permalink)
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Member
Join Date: Oct 2007
Posts: 92
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Notes: Confidence in Dice-K
The Official Site of The Boston Red Sox: News: Boston Red Sox News
Quote:
By the time the Red Sox's clubhouse door opened on Tuesday, Daisuke Matsuzaka was no longer sitting at his locker, stuck in the icy pose he was in for well over an hour following his Game 3 loss Monday night. It was a new day, and Matsuzaka -- who is slated to take the ball for the Red Sox in Sunday's Game 7, if there is one -- did some work on the field before the game. The Red Sox? They continue to express nothing but confidence in the man who won 15 games during the regular season after the front office made a $103.1 million investment to bring him over from Japan.
"I know [the media is] worried about Dice-K," said veteran Red Sox reliever Mike Timlin. "We're not worried about him. We'll handle what we need to handle. This is a 30-man family. If one guy falls down, the rest of us pick him up. That's just how it's been all year long. It will be the same way now."
Would Timlin and his teammates still have confidence in Matsuzaka in the pressure-cooker of a Game 7?
"His track record speaks for itself," Timlin said. "As well as he's pitched all year long, yeah."
Matsuzaka has not been the same pitcher in the second half (5-6, 5.19 ERA) that he was before the All-Star break (10-6, 3.84 ERA). His first two postseason outings (0-1, 6.75 ERA) have been both spotty and uneconomical.
In a way, Red Sox ace Josh Beckett can relate to Dice-K. Even though Beckett was coming from the Marlins last year and not Japan, there were still adjustments to be made in the American League, not to mention the intensity of pitching in Boston. Beckett didn't make a lot of adjustments last year, giving up 36 home runs and posting a 5.01 ERA. This year, he's one of the best pitchers in the game.
Beckett admitted to seeing some similarity between Matsuzaka and what he went through last year.
"I see some of the same stuff," said Beckett. "You have to make a lot more adjustments here, whether you're coming from the National League to the American League ... obviously I never played in Japan, but I would assume you still have to make some adjustments. Pitching in the American League East and pitching to some of these teams out of our division, you have to learn how to make adjustments, because great hitters, that's what they do. They make adjustments while they're at-bat, from pitch to pitch, and you have to defense what they're trying to do."
Though a lot was made out of how long Matsuzaka, still in full uniform, stared into his locker after Game 3 in what looked like stunned silence, his teammates didn't seem taken aback by it.
"He lost," Timlin said. "How would you take it? He took it pretty hard. It's the playoffs. You want to win, you want to do well for your teammates. You take it hard."
And as much as manager Terry Francona remains aware of the adjustments Dice-K is still making, he remains confident in the right-hander's heart.
"I think he's one of the strongest guys mentally I've ever seen," Francona said. "Again, 10 minutes after a game, how a guy reacts won't have anything to do with five days later ... with time to process things and learn from our mistakes and get back on the right track."
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Notes: Confidence in Dice-K
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