Red Sox pitching. Daisuke Matsuzaka was easily the most-hyped signing of the 2007 offseason, so some might wonder if he was worth the $103 million Boston dropped on the right-hander to come to America from Japan. Tonight may be the night everyone finds out. The regular season began with lots of chatter about the 27-year-old’s array of pitches, including a mysterious, supposedly unhittable “gyroball.” After 162 games, Matsuzaka was 15-12 with a 4.40 ERA in 32 starts. Red Sox officials say they’re happy with that output after making such a sizable investment, but they would certainly be thrilled if Matsuzaka can come up with a quality start in the aftermath of Saturday’s 13-6 Game 2 loss to the Indians. For his part, Matsuzaka admitted to struggling at times, saying Sunday he would prefer to wait until after the postseason before presenting a final analysis of his year.
Indians pitching. Anyone would suffer in comparison when pitching on the same staff as Cy Young Award candidates C.C. Sabathia and Fausto Carmona, so there’s little wonder that a casual observer would look at Jake Westbrook’s 6-9 regular-season record and the 4.32 ERA and feel that tonight’s start is a disaster waiting to happen. But Indians manager Eric Wedge says Westbrook is great at adjusting to situations and accomplishing whatever he needs to do. In this case, that could be as simple as getting through the fifth inning, something his more accomplished teammates were unable to do in the opening two games of the series. There are also a couple of numbers that belie Westbrook’s mediocre won-lost record: between 2004-06 the 30-year-old was tied for fifth in the American League in victories (44). Also, since 2004, no pitcher has induced more double plays than Westbrook (109).
