Daisuke Matsuzaka looks to improve upon his major-league best winning percentage on the mound against R.A. Dickey and the Mariners. Boston has scored a total of three runs in his last two outings. The good thing is that he didn't give up any. Comment away.
| Boston | |
| J. Ellsbury lf | .262 |
| D. Pedroia 2b | .320 |
| J.D. Drew rf | .290 |
| M. Ramirez dh | .301 |
| M. Lowell 3b | .282 |
| K. Youkilis 1b | .314 |
| J. Lowrie ss | .298 |
| J. Varitek c | .218 |
| C. Crisp cf | .255 |
| D. Matsuzaka | 2.65 |
| Seattle | |
| I. Suzuki rf | .301 |
| J. Lopez 2b | .297 |
| R. Ibanez lf | .278 |
| J. Vidro dh | .222 |
| A. Beltre 3b | .264 |
| J. Reed cf | .256 |
| J. Clement c | .172 |
| B. LaHair 1b | .000 |
| Y. Betancourt ss | .265 |
| R.A. Dickey | 3.73 |
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Long out...emphasis on "out".
Posted by: Devine | Wednesday, July 23, 2008 at 12:55 AM
Paps on, gets the first out on one very hard hit ball. Let's try missing the bat a little better, Paps.
Posted by: Paul SF | Wednesday, July 23, 2008 at 12:55 AM
1-2. Now throw the splitter.
Nope, 2-2.
Posted by: Devine | Wednesday, July 23, 2008 at 12:56 AM
Little bit heart-attacky there between Crisp and Ellsbury, but still...out.
Posted by: Devine | Wednesday, July 23, 2008 at 12:58 AM
Ahhhh there we go. Nice to get a couple wins back... Only half-game back of the Rays!
Posted by: Paul SF | Wednesday, July 23, 2008 at 12:59 AM
Grounder to 3rd. Done. Cool. Not optimistic about tomorrow's matchup, but hey, ya never know.
Posted by: Devine | Wednesday, July 23, 2008 at 12:59 AM
Are you kidding me? You're really using WINS as an example of luck?
By all standards, Dice-K is performing worse than last season. The only thing better is his homerun rate (he's cut it in half, and unless he's just started throwing a sinker, or has remarkable control [hint: this isn't the answer], he's just getting extremely, extremely lucky, especially given his flyball tendencies), and BABIP. His line-drive rate is up, his GB/FB ratio is more towards the FB, his walks are way up, and his strikeouts are down. His FIP is 3.98.
Luckiest. Seasonal. Pitching. Performance. Ever.
Posted by: AndrewYF | Wednesday, July 23, 2008 at 08:00 AM
hey Andrew - better lucky than good sometimes! :)
Posted by: dw (sf) | Wednesday, July 23, 2008 at 09:06 AM
Wins AND ERA.
Hey, no doubt he makes us wince, but he's been wiggling his way out of jams all season. He throws a lot of pitches and guys get on but they don't score.
Just because there's no sabermetric formula to explain it doesn't justify calling it luck. Try a little harder.
Posted by: I'mBillMcNeal | Wednesday, July 23, 2008 at 02:11 PM
There's no sabermetric formula to explain it. That's why it's called luck. Unless you want to tell me Matsuzaka somehow turns supersayan whenever he lets men on base, I'll stick with the actually reasonable analysis that he is getting extremely lucky this season.
Posted by: AndrewYF | Wednesday, July 23, 2008 at 02:16 PM
Wins, ERA and hits. Granted walks aren't much better than a hit, but I'll take a walk over a hit any day.
Posted by: Atheose | Wednesday, July 23, 2008 at 02:22 PM
Daisuke's opposing stats:
Bases empty: .198 .328 .297 (229 PA)
RISP: .179 .313 .269 (98 PA)
Those aren't small sample sizes.
Posted by: Atheose | Wednesday, July 23, 2008 at 02:27 PM
The problem is, he's not getting nearly enough strikeouts to offset the men he lets on base via the walk. So, he relies a lot on balls in play - the majority of which are flyballs, and a fair few are line drives. Very, very few of those flyballs go for homeruns. It has been shown that a pitcher cannot control this. That, at least, is pure luck.
Posted by: AndrewYF | Wednesday, July 23, 2008 at 05:29 PM