Considering what Daisuke Matsuzaka could face tonight, life's been a day at the beach to date this season.
The struggling and rehabbing Red Sox right-hander has not had an easy life over the past couple of months, but he'll be facing a team that features a starting lineup littered with hitters who are all around the .300 mark in the visiting Los Angeles Angels.
Matsuzaka saw nothing like the Angels in his four minor league rehab stints, and the last time he saw anything approaching them he gave up six runs on eight hits over four innings. That was his last start for the Red Sox, June 19 against the Braves. The Red Sox are confident now, however, that a slimmed down and toned up Matsuzaka is ready to regain his spot in the rotation.
"He was basically reconditioning his body, gaining some overall core strength, addressing the strength deficiencies that were present prior to going to on the disabled list," said Red Sox pitching coach John Farrell. "But he's made four starts on rehab and he's been progressively better in terms of quality of the pitches and power to the fastball."
In other words, the Red Sox think he's ready. In his final rehab stint, he threw 6 2/3 strong innings for the Salem Red Red Sox against Winston-Salem in the Carolina League playoffs. He allowed just one run, throwing 87 pitches without any ill effects. He is not the same pitcher who went 1-5, 8.23 in two separate stints with the big club.
"We've gotten him up to 87 pitches his last outing," Farrell said. "We're in that 90-to-95-pitch range, and I think the biggest thing for us is for him to go out and keep the game under control and give us an opportunity into the middle and latter part of the game."
Of course, we're talking about an opponent that can hit. These are not the Angels that have a cumulative 1-9 record against the Red Sox in losing three straight ALDS (2004, 2007, 2008). The Red Sox played the Angels six games in Anaheim this season, three each in April and May, and L.A. will be making its first trip to Fenway tonight after playing a makeup game against the Yankees yesterday.
"I hope they play 20 innings," said Red Sox manager Terry Francona. "It will be a good challenge. It seems like it's been a long time and we've played some good baseball in the meantime."
Right now, though, the Red Sox aren't necessarily concerned about challenges. They simply want to win, which is something they've done for five straight outings, with back-to-back sweeps over Baltimore and Tampa Bay. The Tampa Bay series was especially satisfying
"I feel like we basically lived here for the last three days with rain delays," said Mike Lowell. "I thought we showed great composure and not letting the doubleheader, rain delay or cancellation take away from our focus. We played a great series."
Additionally, the Red Sox got three outstanding pitching performances. Josh Beckett, who admitted that he was dealing with the flu and its aftereffects, threw five solid innings in Saturday's rain-shortened game. On Sunday, Clay Buchholz and Jon Lester were outstanding in 3-1 and 4-0 wins. The offense followed suit, as needed.
Now the Red Sox have a stiffer test. The Angels are running away with the A.L. West and are two games better than the Red Sox with 86 wins.
"We've had two series against them and we're very familiar with them," said Lowell, who feels the Red Sox bats are now more consistent than then. "And we've met in the postseason, the first round the last two years. It's not like it's a team we've never faced. I still think it's an important series for us to get to the playoffs."
"I think for us (it) is just another series," said Jason Bay, "but we need to take care of business. So, yeah, it'll be a good barometer, I guess. But in the meantime, I think you look at last year, the way they played us, I don't think it's the end-all of everything, but I think it'll give everybody a good yardstick."
It's also why the Red Sox want Matsuzaka to get back in the groove after his 18-win 2008 went down in flames earlier this season. Bay says the Red Sox would like Matsuzaka to be "that guy" again.
"I don't think he has to be that guy right away," said Bay. "I think we have to give him a little time, but at the same time you have to be a little excited to see him out there. We had him for the first month of the season and he's kind of been the forgotten man a little bit. He's been in Florida forever and all of a sudden we see a lot of him. And you realize he was a huge part of our team last year. It'd be nice if he could give us some of that."
(Mike Fine writes for the Quincy Patriot Ledger of Gatehouse News Service.)
