Wednesday, July 3, 2013

A Year Has Not Changed Matsuzaka's Luck

BLADE/ANDY MORRISON
A year ago today, we were reporting on another dismal loss by Daisuke Matsuzaka. The Oakland A's put up a five-spot in the first inning on the way to a 6-1 drubbing of Boston at The Concrete Prison On The Bay. To add insult to injury, he allowed home runs to two ex-Red Sox players—Brandon Moss and Josh Reddick. Fast forward 365 days and Dice-K is now pitching for the AAA affiliate of the Cleveland Indians. Last night, he goes five innings giving up five earned runs on two home runs. Déjà vu all over again. According to the website Indians Baseball Insider, "Unfortunately, the Dice-K experiment looks like a bust (barring the Tribe being able to sell his contract to an NPB team for a significant sum)." Almost exactly our words last year. At age 32, it looks like the end of the line for Matsuzaka. How bright things looked in 2007 when, at age 26, he won 15 games for the Carmine Hose and even had a victory in the World Series (knocking in two runs to boot). Seems like eons ago.