Red Sox 13
Tampa Bay 5

In a cruel twist of fate, the most critical game of Scott Kazmir’s 5-year career turned out to be the worst performance of his career.

The hard-throwing lefty, known for giving the Red Sox more fits than an epileptic child after playing 20 straight hours of Grand Theft Auto, gave up 9 earned runs in only 3 innings, including 4 walks and 4 home runs.  It is, by far, the worst Major League outing ever for the formidable pitcher.

While the Sox were able to explode for 9 extra base hits (6 HR, 3 2B), let’s not overlook the performance from Daisuke Matsuzaka, who simply hasn’t received enough praise for the season he is having.  His approach is frustrating to some; “walking guys” is the bane of most traditional baseball fans.  My belief is that most fans consider a walk to be the result of a mental burp, something that could just be avoided if the pitcher “woke up” or “had balls” or whatever.  In Daisuke’s case, these walks should be considered a tax, or overhead.  They are an expense to Daisuke for doing his business outside of the strike zone.  He’d like to limit them (as he did last night), but sometimes they will happen.  While the walks are unfortunate, they can be tolerated when opponents are hitting .214.

Should Matsuzaka change his approach?  A quick look at his numbers in 2008 should answer that question resoundingly.

NOTES:

• With Jason Varitek’s 158th career home run, he passes Hall of Famer Carlton Fisk for most taters by a catcher in a Red Sox uniform.  Sure, the guy might be overrated around these parts, but he’s put together a fine career.
• RIP Richard Wright, the keyboardist of Pink Floyd.  Wright dies way too young at 65, and the quality of rock music continues to deteriorate.  Wright’s work on the synthesizer put me to sleep many a night, and accompanied me on many a drive.  The grass was greener…

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