BOSTON – There is mystery on the mound with the pitcher known as Dice-K.
No one in the Red Sox organization knows Daisuke Matsuzaka better than pitching coach John Farrell and yesterday Farrell said the baseball world has yet to see the complete Matsuzaka.
In essence, tonight’s matchup against the Angels will be Matsuzaka’s debut on the major league stage.
“We always felt that Dice-K had the ability to turn it up a notch,” Farrell said as we stood in the warm October sunshine along the first base line at Fenway Park the day before tonight’s Game 2 of the American League Division Series (8:37 p.m., TBS). “I can tell by his body language that he knows this is an important time of year. That doesn’t mean he is stomping around as a middle linebacker, but he has the ability to maintain a very high level of focus and concentration and it does show in the way he goes about his work.
“The same goes for Josh Beckett.”
If Matsuzaka can come out and shut down the Angels in a way similar to the way Beckett dominated the Angels, the Red Sox will have the 1-2 punch that is needed to get through the postseason. The right- hander Matsuzaka was 15-12 with a 4.40 ERA over 2042/3 innings.
Now that he is on the October stage, those numbers are tossed aside. Matsuzaka will be considered a success or a bust on what he does this month.
“Almost everything was new to me,” Matsuzaka said earlier this week of his first season in the majors after so many years of success in Japan. “So every experience I had, I decided it was going to be a learning year for me. Now that I’m at the very end, I feel that I want to go into this game in the best shape that I possibly can.”
What people don’t know about Matsuzaka, especially Yankees fans, is that in many ways he is a throwback to an earlier generation of pitchers where team comes before self.
“First and foremost,” Farrell said, “he is a very good teammate. On nights when he is not pitching he is on the top step, he watches the opponent, he watches his teammate, he pulls for people. He likes the camaraderie in the clubhouse. He takes a tremendous amount of responsibility and accountability for all of his actions. He likes to have fun but it never gets in the way of his work routine.”
The game is so important to Matsuzaka, Farrell said, noting the precision workouts that Matsuzaka and fellow Japanese pitcher Hideki Okajima go through.
“As we get together as a group, whether it is a group of pitchers or position players watching how they go about their work, some of that rubs off,” Farrell said. “People learn from that.”
Farrell said that to some extent he is “envious” of the culture Matsuzaka and other Japanese players have created.
“Not only the work ethic, but the very humble approach in which they go about it, to me, getting to know Dice-K, everything is about something greater,” Farrell said. “It’s not about him. And that’s where I see him as such a good teammate.
“It’s what I can do for this team. He and Hideki have set an example in a different way, but it is one that we can all learn from.”
The focus of the great pitchers, Farrell said, is an instinctive response.
“They understand the importance of each pitch that is thrown. I think Beckett embodies that as well,” Farrell added. “You can look at that elite group of athletes, they don’t take things for granted, and there are no shortcuts.
They are willing to commit and sacrifice, and let’s face it, the viewing public looks at athletes in the way that they have everything. Yet at the same time, they have to make so many decisions along the way to stay committed and focused to a routine because they realize that the window continues to close by the day.
“They stay committed to that process to reap the rewards and make their impression on this game over the long run.”
Matsuzaka has the opportunity tonight to make his first great October impression.