Dice-K Comes Up Huge

Admit it, you thought Dice-K would last about 4 innings and would give up 5 runs tonight. Matsuzaka proved everybody wrong and pitched a great game at the Fens tonight.  In 6 scoreless innings he gave up just 3 hits and struck out 5.  RR, Wagner, Bard, and Paps went the rest of the way.  Papelbon looked a little shaky and gave up one run but in the end he shut down the Angels.

The game was tied at 0-0 until the 6th when the Red Sox took the lead on a throwing error by John Lackey.  Ells and Big Papi each had 2 hits in the game.

With the dominating performance by Dice-K tonight, the Red Sox suddenly have the best rotation in baseball.  Going into the playoffs with Beckett, Lester, Buchholz, and Dice-K all pitching well could spell trouble for any team standing in their way.

After the game Matsuzaka talked about how he was feeling:

"On the road back I've been a burden on my teammates more than anything, and I feel that I owe them."

 The Rangers lost again so the Red Sox now lead the wild-card race by 5.5 games.

Red Sox Win 4-1 BOX SCORE

	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	R	H	E
LA Angels	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	1	6	1
Red Sox	0	0	0	0	0	2	0	2	0	4	9	0