Daisuke Matsuzka took the hill on Saturday at spring training and faced batters for the first time and from all accounts it sounded like he fared well for the first time. Here is a look at the article from redsox.com.
Interestingly, Matsuzaka started from the stretch, throwing 20 pitches before converting to the windup. As usual, he had a reason for doing it like that. Matsuzaka seems to enjoy testing himself mentally every bit, as much as physically.
“I had runners on my mind, in the back of my head,” Matsuzaka said. “That’s why I started from the stretch.”
Once Matsuzaka went to the windup, his best fastball seemed to emerge.
“I saw him break out every pitch,” Francona said. “Fastball, changeup, breaking ball — he was commanding the ball. He looked like he had his feet on the ground. I understand when I left, he turned it up a little bit. I wish I would have seen it the other way around. But he’s got that changeup that he turns over, which will really be effective. He’s got good spin on his breaking ball. I thought he did fine.”
The four Minor League hitters who faced Matsuzaka would certainly agree. There weren’t a lot of healthy cuts off the bats of Jacoby Ellsbury, Luis Jimenez, Kevin Cash and Bobby Scales. This, despite the fact that catcher Jason Varitek told the hitters which pitches were coming.
To me it’s interesting that Varitek told the hitters what pitches were coming. Even with that, they really couldn’t make contact with any of them. It is nice to see the effectiveness of his pitches so early in spring training. His first real test though will come on March 2nd when he faces the Boston College Eagles. Even though they will be college hitters, it will be his first real opportunity with opposing batters as a member of the Red Sox.
Matsuzaka had this to say about his batting practice session today:
“Generally, it is easier for me to pitch against a batter, compared to when I pitch in the bullpen,” Matsuzaka said. “The pitches went pretty well today; the types of pitches I threw today were fastballs, curveballs, sliders and changeups.”
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