Monday’s start against the Cincinnati Reds was the 5th start of the spring for Daisuke Matsuzaka, and his fourth on the road. He wasn’t as sharp as he was in his last outing against the Pirates. He throw 104 pitches in 5 innings. Just over half (59) were for strikes. He didn’t allow any hits nor runs but walked 5. He did strikeout six batters.
He seemed to be working on different pitches instead of trying to establish his fastball. He fell behind on the hitters early and you could even see him getting pissed at himself.
Normally after his starts, Matsuzaka usually will meet with the media and then the Japanese media, but for the first time all spring, he didn’t speak with the media but rather issued this statement:
‘‘This time of the year, I think the content of my pitching is more important than the result on paper. I’m not happy with the content of my pitching today. I threw a lot of walks and wasted balls and it was tough for my fielders to defend and to get into a good rhythm on offense. It’s something I want to pay attention to in the regular season.’’
Honestly, if this is him struggling, I’d hate to see him when he is on. We all have high expectations on what to expect from him and I am sure his expectations are higher than ours. He is a tireless worker and I expect whatever kinks he had on Monday to be worked out by the time he faces the Phillies this weekend in Philadelphia. Yet another road start for him.
