Dice-K: 1 Step Up, 2 Steps Back

After coming off a good start in Florida, Dice-K looked much like he did earlier in the season for the Red Sox during his start for the Sea Dogs yesterday. His first pitch missed everything and sailed by the catcher. Unfortunately, things would only get worse. He gave up a lead-off home run, then a walk, then a base hit, then another base hit and by the time he finnished the inning he had thrown 49 pitches and given up 5 earned runs.

He looked much better in the second and retired them in order on 9 pitches before he was done for the day.

“In the first inning, I think I got into the game sort of at about 60-70 percent of maximum output for me,” Matsuzaka said. “That’s how I was approaching it. There were a few things that I wanted to work on, and that’s why I wanted to get into the game gradually. Mind you, I didn’t think that I would get hit up quite that badly, but I think in the second inning, I just applied a few of those things that I was working on in the first.”

You can listen to the press conference on the Central Maine Sports Blog.

It is very late in the season for him to have outings like this. If he struggles again in his next rehab start it will be a major indiactor that he will not be in the rotation again this season. Luckily Paul Byrd looked like he can be a good replacement.