He did just that in the fourth inning of his start Thursday night against the Kansas City Royals, escaping a bases-loaded, no outs jam unharmed. Another Matsuzaka miracle.
So, when Matsuzaka found himself in a difficult situation in the fifth, it was no surprise to see manager Terry Francona stick with the enigmatic right-hander. Having faith in Matsuzaka’s ability to survive has been rewarded in the past.
"If there’s one guy who can deal with runners on, it’s Daisuke," Francona said.
But as Francona himself later pointed out, when you play with fire enough times, you’re bound to get burned, and that’s what happened in a fifth inning that saw Matsuzaka struggle through a bout of wildness that reached historic proportions.
In a flash, the man who was coming off a near no-hitter and had tossed 12 straight scoreless innings overall was fighting for his pitching life, a fight he would lose after running his walks total to a career high-tying eight, hitting one batter and throwing a wild pitch that led to a run.
His five free passes in the fifth were the most by a Red Sox pitcher since Darren Oliver allowed the same number in a game over eight years ago.
"We’ve seen this happen before," Francona said. "The good side of it is he competes. He’s probably the most relaxed guy out there. We’re sitting there on the edge of our seats. The inning before, bases loaded, nobody out and he makes pitches. [But] you keep doing that at some point you’re gonna get caught."
The 29-year-old Matsuzaka, whose ERA through six starts sits at 5.77, said that he has a tendency to overthink things once the going gets rough. For whatever reason, as was the case Saturday in Philadelphia and three starts ago at home against Toronto, he is able to block out those thoughts from time to time and pitch clean.
But when the thoughts begin to creep in, there can be a snowball effect.
"When things are going bad, no matter what I try to get out of it, things just don’t click," Matsuzaka said through interpreter Masa Hoshino.
In the fifth inning Thursday, nothing clicked.
Matsuzaka issued his first walk of the inning to leadoff man Chris Getz, who promptly stole second. After a strikeout, he walked Mike Aviles and then surrendered an RBI single to David DeJesus that tied the game 1-1.
Then, with a 3-2 count on Billy Butler, Matsuzaka threw a heater that nearly took off Butler’s head, a sure indication that the fastball command, which had been shaky all night, was just about gone.
Jose Guillen, who was hit by a pitcher earlier in the game, drew the fourth walk of the inning and seventh of the game to force in the go-ahead run. One out later, Matsuzaka threw one in the dirt that got away from catcher Jason Varitek and allowed Butler to trot home and make it 3-1.
Four more balls to Mitch Maier and Matsuzaka’s night was through.
He threw 43 pitches in getting two outs in the fifth.
While the implosion seemed to arrive in a heartbeat, pitching coach John Farrell seemed to indicate he could see it coming.
"He seemingly lacked command pretty much from start to finish tonight," Farrell said. "He did a great job of pitching out of a bases-loaded, no outs jam in the fourth, but the walks in the end ended up catching up to him."
Matsuzaka has exchanged good starts and bad starts over his last five outings, but in only one of those starts was he able to walk fewer than three. He has issued 21 bases on balls in 34 1/3 innings this season. The Japanese import has yet to string together two good starts in a row and has almost nothing positive he can take from this latest outing.
Essentially, Dice-K’s in trouble. Now he has to pitch out of it again.
