Bats, bullpen bail out woeful Dice-K

Baseball rules dictate that Daisuke Matsuzaka be awarded with the win in Boston's 8-5 victory over the New York Yankees on Sunday night. He pitched five innings and departed with the Red Sox holding a lead, and the team maintained that lead. Yet, anyone but Dice-K deserved credit for last evening's triumph.

In one of his worst starts since donning a Boston uniform, Matsuzaka labored through five agonizing innings, allowing four runs and five hits while walking six. He rarely threw a first pitch strike, helped Yankees hitters with deep counts and of his 116 pitches (yes, 116 pitches in five innings), only 62 were strikes. Still, thanks to Boston's bats, and an impressive performance by relievers David Aardsma, Javier Lopez and Manny Delcarmen, the Sox managed a three-run victory after once leading by six.

While Matsuzaka could not find the strike zone, and when he did he was behind in the count and had to groove hittable pitches, Yankees starter Phil Hughes had trouble missing Red Sox bats. Hughes, who lasted only three innings in his previous start that saw him knocked around by Kansas City, was dismantled in 2.0 innings of work against Boston. The lifelong Red Sox fan was tagged for seven runs (six earned) and six hits while walking three and throwing 65 pitches.

When the first four batters reached in the third (a J.D. Drew walk, a base hit by Manny Ramirez and RBI singles by Kevin Youkilis and Sean Casey), Hughes was mercifully relieved by Ross Ohlendorf, who allowed both of his inherited runners to score on a wild pitch and a run-scoring single from Jacoby Ellsbury.

The two runs that Ohlendorf permitted gave Boston a 7-1 advantage after three innings and would later prove costly for the Yankees. DIce-K lack of command is the reason why. Even with a six-run lead, Matsuzaka tried to paint the corners instead of aggressively attacking Yankees hitters and making them put the ball into play. In the top of the fourth, New York plated three runs, trimmed the score to 7-4 and transformed a laugher into an intense drama.

Matsuzaka was fortunate to escape the fifth without blowing the rest of the Red Sox lead. Bobby Abreu led off the frame and worked a full count before striking out. Dice-K had an 0-2 count on Alex Rodriguez before throwing three straight balls and then retiring him on a ground out. Hideki Matsui followed with a four-pitch walk and after getting ahead of Jorge Posada 0-2, Matsuzaka allowed a line drive single to the Yankees DH/catcher. Jason Giambi ended the frame by lining out to Crisp in deep center field.

Aardsma continued Dice-K's trend of getting behind hitters when he walked two in a row after retiring Jose Molina, but then he settled down and dismissed five consecutive Yankees to give Boston a sorely needed two scoreless innings of relief.

The nail biting was far from over for Red Sox fans, though. Mike Timlin started the eighth inning and allowed a solo home run to Jason Giambi, who homered off Timlin on Friday night, too. Timlin served up base hits to Molina and pinch-hitter Melky Cabrera, resulting in Terry Francona summoning Javier Lopez with two on, no outs and Boston's lead just 7-5.

Lopez, who struggles against left-handed hitters, induced a double play grounder by Johnny Damon. Dustin Pedroia fielded the ball, tagged Cabrera and delivered a strike to Sean Casey to get Damon by a step. Moments later, with a runner on third, Robinson Cano grounded out. It was perhaps the best outing in Lopez's tenure with the Sox.

Boston scored a crucial insurance run in the bottom of the eighth off Kyle Farnsworth, the ineffective reliever who blamed Joe Torre for his troubles last year and has a 5.68 ERA this season.

Coco Crisp opened the eighth with a sharp single. He then stole second, not drawing a throw from the sore-shouldered Posada, who entered the game as catcher after Molina was lifted for a pinch-runner in the top of the eighth after straining a hamstring. Crisp advanced to third on Julio Lugo's fly out and scored on Ellsbury's sacrifice fly, lifting the Sox to an 8-5 lead.

In the ninth, Lopez recorded a ground out from Abreu. Delcarmen entered and overpowered A-Rod on a strike out and then induced a routine ground out from Matsui to earn the save.

Matsuzaka is now 3-0 with a 2.70 ERA. His first two victories were impressive, but for last night's win he can thank the bullpen (minus Timlin) and an encouraging display by Red Sox hitters. Pedroia, Ramirez, Youkilis, Casey and Crisp each had two hits. Ellsbury added a key run-scoring single and a clutch sacrifice fly.

The Sox take a 7-6 record into Cleveland, where they will start a brief two-game set Monday night on ESPN. It appears that Clay Buchholz and Chien-Ming Wang will start Wednesday's game at Yankee Stadium while Josh Beckett and Mike Mussina will get the call on Thursday in a rematch of the first two games of the weekend series.