Daisuke Matsuzaka Starts at McCoy Stadium

This past weekend my friend and I headed to McCoy Stadium to take in the Pawtucket Red Sox Double Header against the Yankees AAA team, Rochester Red Wings.

The Sox won both games - the first game was close at a score of 1-0. The winning pitcher? Daisuke Matsuzaka. I wanted to take in my first game of the season at McCoy watching Daisuke's rehab start, and he looked great! Reliever Alan Embree...not so great.

Here are a few of the pictures I took.

Watching Daisuke warming up in the Bullpen. This guy was crazy with his warmup routine. I think he stretched every possible muscle in his body...and then some! He also spent some time watching highlight reels on the scoreboard.

Short Stop, Angel Sanchez, throwing a ball to a fan during warmups.


Can you see Josh Reddick all bundled up? It was cold out, but not that cold!

Daisuke pitched really well. Looking forward to seeing him back in Boston soon!

Paws shooting TShirts into the crowd

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Dice-KKKKKKKKKK

I haven't read my daily blogs yet and have tried to stay away from any form of news before I wrote my Daisuke update. I can image this is what everyone has been fosuing on, and rightly so. The kid didn't do us wrong, infact he was pretty darn good.

I'm really looking forward to watching him develop as an MLB pitcher this year. If you weren't able to see any of the game, check out ESPN's video highlights of Daisuke's debut.

(photo courtesy of the AP)

Matsuzaka went 7 innings and gave up 6 hits and 1 run. He had 10 strike outs (1 less than the Red Sox rookie debut record), walked only one and threw 108 pitches - 74 for strikes. Most impressive was the 4th inning where he struck out the side on 14 (I think) pitches. Even though he got in bit of trouble in the 1st (which he got out of by turning a double play) and gave up a DeJesus homerun, the Sox came out on top 7-1.

I think fans who were there got to see the first game of a Red Sox legend. Too easy to make those comments? I'm wishful. Apparently we could have all been at the game. We should have banded together and chartered a plane, according to this Boston.com article, it still would have been cheaper than us spending a day at Fenway!

On another note - The Daisuke Nike Commercial is great. I love it, almost as much as I love the beer commercial. Thank goodness for the Internet so we're all able to see stuff like this whenever we want.

Something else which deserves mention is Jon Lester's performance yesterday.

Lester made his first start of the year Thursday night for the Class-A Greenville Drive as he attempts to return to Boston's rotation after an offseason of cancer treatments and uncertainty. He shut out the New York Yankees' affiliate, the Charleston RiverDogs, on two hits over four innings before coming out.

When Lester left the game, he thought he had allowed only one hit, but afterward the official scorer ruled that Mitch Hilligoss' hard shot at Greenville third baseman Manny Arambarris was a hit. The scorer originally said Hilligoss reached base on an error.

I think it's safe to say we all wish Lester well and are excited about tracking his progress.

I'm listening to the Sox game at Texas. It's only the third inning, but....

Dear Dougie,

For the love of God. Please cut us a break.

Love,
Soxy Lady

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A Lead-off Double?

6:04 PM - Dice K's first pitch, a lead-off double down the left field line to a Boston College player.....oh man....I mean, it's not time to start panicing but this certainly wasn't expected.

6:08 PM - First strike out - called strike on a high fastball/92 MPH. Two down, man on third. Let's go Sox!

6:10 PM - Strike out number two! That's more like it!

6:17 PM - 1 down, Pedroia on 2nd, full count on Tek. Let's Go Cap't! WOO HOO! Base hit, moved Pedroia over to third.

6:18 - Remy is commenting how there is the largest crowd he's ever seen on press row tonight. That's not surprising! Although they are saying now it might be similar to when the Yankees came with ARod the first time a few years ago. AFraud. Hmph.

6:20 - Wily Mo and Hinske both struck out to end the inning.

6:25 - Dice-K pitched to a full-count and they got the out at first. We've been seeing a pretty good range of his pitches (fastball, curveball, changeup, split and a slider!)He's retired four in a row.

6:27 - Strikeout victim number three on another high fastball. I dunno, it did look a little high to me. Five in a row.

6:29 - The side has been retired. Six in a row.

6:31- Homerun Jeff Bailey! Sox up 1-0

Dice-K is heading to the club house.
If I'm correct the stats are as follows:
6 Balls - 19 Strikes - 25 Pitches
2 IP - 1 H - 0 R - 0 ER - 0 BB - 3 K

Not a bad showing! That's all I'm covering for tonight. No, not because I'm tuning out but because Soxy Lady's man is hungry and I'm on dinner duty!

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Time To See What the Kid Can Do

I'm placing my bets now that tonight's Spring Training game will be the highest viewed Grapefruit League game in history. Curt and Becks came out earlier this week and did their thing, but all eyes will be on Dice-K tonight. Both in the US and Japan. Live report to follow.

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Dramatown, FL

I'm having a hard time wanting to post lately. The thing is, all the news about the Red Sox lately is DRAMA filled. I just want them to play ball already.

Dear members of the Boston Sports Media,

Enough is enough. I am sick to death trying to figure out who is getting more attention. Is it the threesome of Britney, Anna and Cameron? Or Manny, Schill and Dice-K? The Red Sox are a BASEBALL team. Let's keep it real. Cut the drama. Let's talk about baseball. Lets talk about Timlin's possible injury, lets talk about Mike Lowell's leadership and for goodness sake, if we must talk about Dice-K lets talk about how he and Vtek are learning to communicate with one another!

Stop blowing things out of proportion. Any serious baseball fan could not have expected the Red Sox to renew Curt's contract before the season started. I don't give a rats @ss about why Manny is late to spring training - I care about his condition once he arrives! And honestly, let's give Dice-K some room to breath and PITCH. That is what he's here for after all!

UGH! UGH! UGH!

Sincerely,
Soxy Lady

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ALL Pitchers & Catchers Report!

Many Red Sox pitchers & catchers reported early to Ft Meyers. Today, however, the rest of those slackers (haha, joke) showed up! I'm a little giddy since this means we'll be seeing many pictures of Varitek over the coming weeks.

One thing I'm really excited to witness is how Tek and Daisuke learn to communicate with one another. I'm already developing a mini-crush on Dice-K. Honestly, it's not because he's the greatest thing since sliced bread (according to the media.) I mean, only a few years back we got Pedro...then Schilling....I have NO DOUBT that I'll come to love Daisuke as a player, but right now I'm loving his little boy smile and his witty comments to the media.

He was asked what pitch he would throw for his first pitch and answered,
"I would love to pitch a fastball, that will be my first ball. I would like my
first batter, if he is listening, please try not to hit the ball."

Plus, he's already out there sporting his Red Sox!

(Photo Courtesy of Boston.com)

Pitchers and catchers reporting means Spring Training games are right around the corner...which mean it's getting closer to Opening Day!

Speaking of Opening Day, argh! I "won" the raffle to have the "opportunity" to buy Opening Day/Patriots Day/Yankees tickets today. So I signed in, sat in the virtual waiting room for an hour, got in to purchase my "tickets" and EVERY game in the raffle was already sold out. So annoying. But I'm over it, really, I am......

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Roll the Dice

Now I'm getting excited! Check out this Japanese Beer Commerical starring our very own Daisuke.

As a former sorority girl, I am proud to report our new pitcher is not drinking in his letters, errr...uniform! The boy can pound 'em! However, he's not smiling. I love his smile. He just looks so friendly.

There is a lot to report on the baseball front today, but unfortunately I don't have time to update right now. I'll be back though!

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