Dice K Diary: Outing vs O's

With apologizes to Bill Simmons of ESPN.com for blantantly ripping off his "Running Diary" format, I decided to chronicle last Sunday's outing by Sox sensation Daisuke Matsusaska which was telecast live on NESN. Here we go:

1:05- Nothing says spring more than the return of Don Orsillo and Jerry Remy who are so far superior to any other baseball announcers that it isn't even funny. Beautiful sunny day in Fort Myers with the Sox wearing their formal home whites playing the O's. Opening day isn't far away. Dice K dealing on the mound in his second start against major leaguers. Remy quickly notes that being in the same division as the Sox, the Orioles want to get a look at Dice K so they have brought their A team including Brian Roberts, Melvin Mora, Miguel Tejada and Jay Gibbons, which figures to be the top of their lineup come the regular season. This should be a good test for the 26 year old.

1:06- Dice K looks strong out of the shoot hitting 93 on the gun. Roberts starts off with a harmless fly ball to Coco Crisp in center.

1:08 - The Dice man is humming as he paints the outside corner with a 93 mph heater to catch Mora looking for his first strikeout of the day.

1:11 - Dice K gets the side in order by embarassing the lefthanded hitting Gibbons on two gyroballs/changeups that dipped like dying quails away from him. The fans go wild as Gibbons flails feebly for strike three.

1:15 - Bottom of the first and NESN wheels Tom Werner and John Henry into the booth with Don and Jerry. They both have more money than God but resemble department store mannequins standing behind the two announcers. Thankfully, the audio is horrible and you really can't hear a word either one says, especially Henry who speaks barely above a whisper.

1:18 - Don brings up the new Red Sox/Nascar affiliations. Great. Nothing like good NASCAR talk in the middle of a ball game. In a whispering monotone, Henry describes how exciting it was when the Fenway racing team won the California 500 a couple of weeks before. He expresses the same excitement as someone changing a lightbulb.

1:25 - On the mound for the O's is Steve Traschel, one of the arms that is supposed to bolster the Baltimore staff this year. Seeing as he had a 4.97 ERA in the AAAA last year with the New York Mets, I'm not that concerned. He was 15-8 but we have experience in Boston with pitchers coming up to majors from the NL and getting hammered in the AL East. He is getting indoctrinated pretty quickly as Lugo, Youk and Ramirez load the bases on some solid contact. JD Drew, hitting .462 this spring steps up.
Don brings up the closer situation and Henry asks Jerry who he thinks will close. Remy responds that if the season were to start tomorrow, he would go with Tavarez, but a lot will happen between now and then. Side Note: True Closer Jonathan Papalbon Held Hostage: Day 24.

1:26 - Bases juiced. Nixon would have popped up for sure in this situation last year. Drew strikes out looking on the sixth pitch of the at bat displaying his good plate patience.

1:29 - Bases loaded, two outs. Tek up. Harmless dribbler back to mound to end the inning. I love Tek but he scares me to death in the sixth spot in the order. He's still hitting under .150 and showing no signs he will bounce back from last year's disaster at the plate.

1:32 - Top of the second. Manny lollygags back and to his right to make a nice play on a Tejada liner.

1:34 - Ramon Hernadez drills one off Dice K's glove for an infield single, the first O's hit of the day.

1:35 - Another beautiful curve on the corner. Dice K was advertised as having great control and he is showing it now.

1:37 - The camera picks up a sign over one of the exits for Shan San Rolls and another behind the plate for Funai DVD's. Sox are working hard to make back the $103 million investment in Dice K. How about the Bisuteki Seventh Inning Stretch?

1:43 - Shot of Bill Belichick sitting next to Tim Wakefield in the dugout. Then a shot of Scott Pioli talking to Tito on the top step. Hopefully Pioli was explaining how important it is to do what's best for the team and not the individual. i.e. Get Pap back in the bullpen.

1:45 - Bottom of the second. Mike Lowell drills a base hit and Alex Cora laces a double down the right field line to put runners on second and third. Welcome to the AL East, Steve. By the way, there's no pitcher hitting in this league.

1:46 - Lugo grounds to 2nd to score Lowell from third. Julio will be a great upgrade from both Crisp and Youk in the leadoff spot. He will however "nomar" the crap out of the ball at short.

1:47 - Youk rips a two out double to left scoring Cora. If pitching is supposed to be ahead of hitting at this time of the year, I can't wait to see what the Sox will do to Trachsel come June. Note to Youk: Kill the beard and mustache. You look like one of the Smith Brothers on the cough drop box.

1:48 - Papi pops up to end the inning but the Sox lead 2-0.

1:51 - Dice K looked dominant in the first two innings but in the third he is starting to struggle. Unheralded John Knott drives an outside fastball over the fence to make it 2-1 Sox.

1:52 - Ex Sox Adam Stern singles to left on an off speed pitch. Stern for empty tank Javy Lopez last year. Another Theo gem of a trade.

1:55 - Stern steals second. Remy points out that Dice K has a slow move to the plate and we will see this more if he doesn't change something.

1:56 - Stern moves to third on a sacrifice fly to mid center field. Is that Damon back in center? Crisp has an equally awful arm. How long before Ellsbury moves up to the bigs?

1:57 - Remy notes that Dice K is not afraid to throw off speed pitches when he is behind 1-0, 2-1 and says that is why he is so effective. Do you think Beckett is listening to the broadcast?

1:59 - Dice K blows Mora away with an inside fastball after catching him looking the first time on an outside fastball in the first. Nice. 41 pitches so far, 29 for strikes.

2:05 - Bottom of the third. Sox leading 2-1. Drew pops out after his looking K in the first. Hmmm. Has Trot come back from Winter Haven to reclaim his uniform?

2:06 - Another feeble at bat for Tek. Easy grounder to second for a force out. No way he can bat sixth. Before long he will have to be moved to the eighth or ninth slot.

2:14 - Top of the fourth. Dice K throws a biting curve to Tejada on a 2-0 count. Miggy fouls it off harmlessly. Can someone please teach Beckett Japanese? Tejada fights off the next pitch and loops it into right for a single. Drew fields it just in front of him on a short bounce. Trot would have dived for it. Of course he would thenwould have been out for a week to ten days with bruised ribs.

2:15 - Dice K does a nice job sawing off Ramon Hernandez who dribbles one back to the mound. Dice K wheels and fires. Into center field. Instead of two outs on a double play and no one on, the Orioles have runners on first and third with none out.

2:18 - Corey Patterson sacrifice fly to Drew ties the game at 2-2.

2:20 - The immortal Jason Dubois drills another high fastball over the wall in right center to give the O's a 4-2 lead. How do you say, "You're not in the Pacific Coast League anymore" in Japanese. Remy points out that Dice K doesn't have the zip on the fastball.

2:25 - Tek guns down Knott trying to steal to end the inning and the Dice man's work for the day. Final line: 4 innings, 6 hits, 4 runs, 3 strikeouts, 0 walks, 3 earned runs, 65 pitches, 43 for strikes.

2:29 - Shot of pitching coach John Farrell talking with Dice K. The interpreter is right there but Farrell is clearly talking directly to Matsusaka. I am going to like Farrell. He looks like he knows what he is doing.

3:35 - Dice K press conference. He says after the first two innings, he was starting to experiment with the O's both to test out the strike zone and to get a feel for a division opponent. Great answer, even if it's not true. He says he wasn't confused on the double play ball, but just made a bad throw. He said he was excited and happy the O's brought their regulars. He also said as he gets to know the runners he will start using a better slide step to prevent them from stealing. That's a relief. He also said he learned in the third and fourth innings that throwing high fastballs is dangerous. Good lesson to learn. He said he is not worked up about the home runs. He said teams will score on him at times and he is not overly concerned.
Overall he handled it well. Just the way you would want. The kid will be fine.

Next start on Friday against the Dodgers.