Dice-K Goes for Win #8

Matsuzaka did not have control of his fastball (and most of his pitches, for that matter) tonight, and had a tough time with the Cleveland Indians lineup. He only went 5 2/3 innings, giving up 6 earned runs and 12 of Cleveland's season-high 18 hits. Matsuzaka falls to 7-3, his ERA balloons to 4.83, and has his 6-game winning streak is snapped.

NipponHam, I watched the game on TV. The Indians are a decent club. He did have some problems. he had strikes on hitters only to give up what I thought were bad pitch selections, which became hits. The night before, Beckett pitched one way to certain hitters and was successful. Dice-K pitched different with inside and low opposite box pitches and was not successful. I know of two pitchers who don't have the same pitches, but batters have weaknesses with certain strike zones.

Again, I was surprised at some of the pitch selections which let the batters off the hook.

In last night's game against Oakland, the Red Sox could have chased Dinardo out in the first inning, but didn't do it. I thought to myself, is Dice-K going to stand alone in this game? Sure enough, they lost 2-0. Dice-K pitched alright except for the hits he gave up.

Again, I must be missing something in the logic of his pitch choice. Two strikes on Swisher - the outfield is pulled to right-shift - he throws an outside pitch which goes down the left field line. Manny's about 50' from it - bango, 2 out hit, 2 out run scored. That's all they needed. I thought he would pitch Swisher inside, with a man on second base. The shift is on for right side fielding. Rough game to lose.

Is Francoia calling the pitches? Is Dice-K and Virtak at a consensus on what pitches shoud be thrown? Sometimes the catcher would setup inside, and the pitch is outside. In NPB, did Dice-K have control over what he wanted to throw?

Or, are the hitters adjusting?

EK, you're probably right, the batters adjust, especially if the pitcher was throwing an index of his pitches; i.e. first pitch fastball low, second pitch change up, third pitch high fast ball, etc. It's like my grandson figuring out a Pac-Man game.

I still think it's Franconia. How does a pitcher two days later almost no-hit the same team? Watching Schilling against the same batters Dice-K faced, Schilling was pitching them low and in.

I know fastball pitchers will give up hits. I saw Nolan Ryan once give up 11 hits and walk 5, but struck out 14 and won the game 2-0. This was over 9 innings.

I guess I am looking for Dice-K's gyroball, unless he thought it would be useless after Wakefield pitching.

Francona is not calling the game. Jason Varitek prepares extensively for every team, and he has stacks upon stacks of data for every batter on every team. Varitek knows what pitches to call in what situation, and Dice-K is more or less calling his own game. I think that if Dice-K starts to trust Varitek more, then he'll have more performances like he did against the Tigers in May.