Unlike the always diplomatic and supportive Red, I cannot remain silent about last night’s effort by Dice-K. He entered the game with a 7.55 ERA and his place in the starting rotation in question. It took him exactly one pitch to solidify the fears of Red Sox Nation and work on getting his ERA up. His night ended after 4+ innings after digging his team into a 6-0 hole. Eight hits, four walks and six earned to bolster his ERA to 8.23 for the season.
The guy is a train wreck. In his eight starts he is 1-5 and has yet to get out of the sixth inning and has given up at least one homer in five of his starts. To use an old baseball cliche, he is just not giving his team a chance to win ballgames.
“If I keep going like this, I have no right to be a part of this rotation,” Matsuzaka said through an interpreter.
Keep going? I’m not sure how much longer Tito can afford to trot this guy out there every five days. Not with Smoltz and Buchholz eagerly awaiting their turns.
Tonight we turn to the Commander to set things right.
