No Dice

Thirty-six thousand fans and 350 credentialed media were in attendance. Millions were watching in 2 countries. All of them were expecting to see a dominating pitching performance.

Well, they did. Only it was 21 yr. old Seattle Mariner phenom Felix Hernandez, and not Red Sox rookie Daisuke Matsuzaka, who stymied the opposing batters. King Felix pitched a complete game shutout against Boston, allowing only 2 walks and an 8th inning single by Sox RF J.D.Drew. He combined a 96 MPH fastball and a 91 MPH slider to record six strikeouts, and faced only 29 batters (2 above the minimum.) Hernandez is now 2-0 for the season, with 17 scoreless innings, 18 K's, and only 4 H and 4 BB allowed. He has a remarkable GO-AO ratio of 29-4, after 2 starts. I am wicked glad I have Barry Zito and his 8.18 ERA on my fantasy baseball team, instead of King Felix.

Daisuke Matsuzaka pitched effectively (7 IP, 3 ER), and recorded 3 K's of Ichiro Suzuki in 3 ABs. (Approximate 10 gajillion pictures of their confrontations were taken.) Matsuzaka did seem to have some trouble with the command of his off-speed pitches- he hung a few that a more powerful lineup (ex. NYY) would have likely capitalized on. While his results for this performance were good, he needs to improve his control a bit, if he hopes to repeat (or better) those results against a tougher team.

The Phillies won their 2nd game of the season, riding a strong pitching performance by Adam Eaton (7 IP, 4 H, 2 ER, 3 BB, 5 K) to a 5-2 win in NY over the rival Mets. Opposing starter Oliver Perez was extremely wild (2.2 IP, 1 H, 3 ER, 7 BB), and the Phillies displayed an ability to walk and get hit by pitches with RISP. They still can't seem to hit with RISP (14 LOB), but at least they did score some runs with this method. An orange cat ran on the field in front of the Phillies bullpen in the later innings, which may have aided the embattled relief corps, who posted 2 shutout innings (Alfonseca 1 IP, Gordon 1 IP,SV) to close out the Mets. LF Pat Burrell reached base in 2 of his 4 ABs, and CF Aaron Rowand went 2 for 3 with 2 RBI. The rest of the offense was absent (3 H in 29 AB, not including Rowand), but the Phils did enough to win.

Two things that ticked me off in the game: In the 2nd inning, Aaron Rowand swung at the 1st pitch against Oliver Perez, who had already walked 5 batters, including 3 in a row. He did wind up walking in that AB, but he still needs to work on his game awareness.
Also, thanks to MLB.TV, I had to listen to the torturous Mets announcers. They reached their peak in the 5th and 6 innings, when they interviewed Howard Johnson and Jerry Koosman, while virtually ignoring the play on the field. They also asked Jerry Koosman if they knew Nolan Ryan was going to be that good when they traded him for journeyman SS Jim Fregosi.
Koos' answer should have been "Yes, we realized Nolan was going to be a 300 game winner with 7 no-hitters, 5714 Ks, and a HOF plaque. But we really needed a 30 yr. old .230 hitting infielder for the next season and a half." I hate the Mets and their announcers and their stadium. I may have mentioned that once or twice.

The Phils and Sox both try to win the rubber games of their respective 3 game series'.
98 yr. old Jamie Moyer goes to the mound for the Phillies against 87 yr. old Met hurler Tom Glavine, while Tim Wakefield goes for the Sox against Jarrod Washburn and the Mariners in another Fenway matinee.