Rangers vs Red Sox coverage
Rangers vs Red Sox recap
Daisuke Matsuzaka certainly didn't pitch well on Sunday. He took the hook in the 6-3 loss, but here's something nice: he walked zero batters. That's right. Not once did he throw a ball four. He struck out eight and allowed five runs in his 5.2 innings of work.
Blame the offense, too. The Nos. 1 through 5 hitters went a combined 1 for 16. If we want to win ballgames, that can absolutely not happen. Mark Kotsay, in his third game back since being on the disabled list, had a big game: 2 for 3 with two runs and a home run. It's nice to see the No. 8 hitter do that, but it's wrong for the No. 8 hitter to have half the team's hits. Kevin Youkilis and David Ortiz had the other two.
The bullpen was almost spotless this time around. Justin Masterson, Ramon Ramirez and Jonathan Papelbon combined for a few solid innings, but Hideki Okajima surrendered a home run to Nelson Cruz. Okajima worked .2 innings and surrendered just that one run. His ERA now sits at 2.55.
Monday is an off day and then Tuesday is the draft. Get pumped!