He's got the style / But not the grace.

Apparently, I should be dissing Daisuke more often. Because a few hours after my post equating watching his starts with a root canal, the guy goes and turns in a gem, no-hitting the reigning NL champs for seven-plus innings.

Everything turned on a bloop single by Juan Castro, which might have been snared by Marco Scutaro if the guy was wearing a jetpack or just a few inches taller.

“If I was six feet, I’d probably get it,” Scutaro said of the soft drive he couldn’t quite catch up to. “I’m [Dustin] Pedroia’s size, so [I couldn’t]. What can I say? I know all the country of Japan is hating me right now. Sorry, sorry. My bad, my bad.”

Other than that, it was a great performance from Matsuzaka, which, of course, guarantees us absolutely nothing where his next start is concerned. But it meant everything to us now, sandwiched between a disappointing loss on Friday and the prospects of facing Doc Halladay today.

Wakey’s still looking for that first win of 2010. The odds aren’t with him this afternoon, but I’ll dial up the same strategy I used in yesterday’s post and doubt the guy’s ability to get it done. Let’s see if it works two days in a row.