Mariners, 3-0
Two hours and twenty-two minutes. That’s how long it took one of the most highly-anticipated games in recent Fenway Park memory to come to a swift conclusion.
Daisuke Matsuzaka’s home debut was overshadowed by a stellar pitching performance from Seattle phenom Felix Hernandez. There was a tangible electricity around the ballpark when Matsuzaka unhurled the first pitch of the game to countryman Ichiro Suzuki. After that, it was all King Felix.
Hernandez was dominant, striking out six and allowing just one hit in a complete-game shutout. He carried a no-hitter into the eighth inning. J.D. Drew broke up the no-no with a single that inning, but Hernandez wouldn’t allow anything more.
“Even when you get in a hitter’s count, [Fernandez] threw some balls that look like they’re disappearing,” Red Sox manager Terry Francona said after the game. “I don’t know as a hitter how you would hit that. We hoped sitting around for a week would bother him. It didn’t seem to. Or if it did, we didn’t see it.”
Matsuzaka, on the other hand, was hittable. The rookie pitcher allowed eight hits and three runs in seven innings of work against the Mariners. He didn’t pitch poorly, but against Hernandez it didn’t matter.
“It was a night where there was no room for error,” said Francona. “I thought [Matsuzaka] left a couple of breaking balls up in the zone. He didn’t give up that much, but on a night like this one was too much.”
Francona was asked how his pitcher was feeling after the game.
“I haven’t gone in and grilled him on his attitude,” he said. “We don’t do that after games.”
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