Boston – Fans were treated to a great pitching performance in Daisuke Matsuzaka’s Fenway Park debut – only it was by Felix Hernandez.
Seattle’s pitching phenom didn’t allow a hit until J.D. Drew singled on his first pitch of the eighth inning as the Mariners beat the Boston Red Sox 3-0 on Wednesday night in the heralded first major-league matchup between Matsuzaka and Ichiro Suzuki.
The burly Hernandez (2-0), three days past his 21st birthday, pitched a one-hitter for his third complete game in 45 starts. Hernandez struck out six and walked two, retiring his first eight batters until walking Dustin Pedroia. He hasn’t given up a run in 17 innings this season.
Before a crowd of 36,630, Matsuzaka (1-1) allowed three runs and eight hits in seven innings, striking out four and walking one.
Going into the game, the attraction was Matsuzaka – specifically, his first matchup in the major leagues against Suzuki, another Japanese star.
In Japan, Suzuki was 8-for-34 (.235) against Matsuzaka, including strikeouts in his first three at-bats. That was in 1999 and 2000, Suzuki’s last two years in Japan and Matsuzaka’s first two as a pro.
“With all the hype going into this game with Matsuzaka and Ichiro,” Seattle manager Mike Hargrove said, “I kept in the back of my mind that people better not overlook our guy.”
TWINS 5, YANKEES 1 at Minneapolis: Ramon Ortiz dominated for eight innings in a victory over New York.
A late free-agent addition who commanded a mere $3.1 million for one season during a winter when the market when wild, Ortiz has allowed three runs and eight hits in 15 innings.
ANGELS 4, INDIANS 1 at Milwaukee: Cleveland couldn’t make it two in a row on its makeshift new home field as Joe Saunders allowed a run and four hits in 6 2/3 innings as Los Angeles beat the Indians at Miller Park.
Saunders, a 25-year-old left-hander, is in the Angels’ starting rotation because of injuries to Bartolo Colon and Jered Weaver. In his second start of the season, he made a strong bid to stick around once they return.
WHITE SOX 6, ATHLETICS 3 at Oakland, Calif.: Darin Erstad hit a go-ahead sacrifice fly in the ninth after Jermaine Dye connected for a tying two-run homer an inning earlier in Chicago’s first series win at the Coliseum in nearly seven years.
DEVIL RAYS 6, RANGERS 5 at Arlington, Texas: Carlos Peña homered in a four-run third inning, and Tampa Bay hung on to beat Texas and snap a four-game losing streak.
Ben Zobrist also homered for the Devil Rays, just 5-36 on the road since last June 30.
BLUE JAYS 7, ROYALS 4 at Toronto: Troy Glaus homered and reached base four times, and Aaron Hill had three hits and three RBIs in Toronto’s victory.
TIGERS 4, ORIOLES 1 (12) at Baltimore: Detroit’s Craig Monroe hit a grand slam with two outs in the 12th inning.
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
