Red Sox Need a Long Outing From Dice-K

Last night's game used up most of the Red Sox bullpen; Oki, RR, Masterson, Saito and Bard all pitched. That leaves just MDC and Paps with fresh arms. Dice-K has the well known problem of throwing a ton of pitches early and not going very deep into games. The Sox really need him to step up big tonight. With the Brad Penny trade rumors, Dice-K has flown under the radar with his 1 win and 7.33 ERA. If Matsuzaka struggles again tonight the Sox are going to find themselves in a difficult situation; trading Penny might be more risky and fans will be vocal about bringing up Buchholz for Dice-K's spot in the rotation. In the end if Dice-K can get into the 7th tonight with a solid outing all of the other speculation will not matter and Red Sox fans will sleep easy.