Final Score: Boston Red Sox 7, Detroit Tigers 1For all looking for a sign that Dice-K is the real deal, look no further: no walks, six hits, five strikeouts and one measly little run over nine innings is about as real as any of us should need. The strong curve ball that anchored his last start returned, complementing an indomitable pitching rhythm required for true domination of the bat. The Tigers had no chance, as ground out after ground out, peppered with a few useless hits, racked up the innings and sealed their fate.
What's even more impressive about Matsuzaka's performance is the one mistake he did make: a low fastball, tailing over the heart of the plate at 94 miles per hour that Curtis Granderson smoked into the right field bleachers for the Tiger's only run. Sure, the pitch was a mistake - a little lower than Tek's waiting glove - but there was no freak out, no pause even, as if the home run failed to penetrate the defenses of Dice-K's concentration. Coming back to pound the outside half of the strike zone, the Zen Master got the next batter and out of the inning on four pitches, on his way to his second masterful start in a row.
Here's what really excites me about this complete game, though: it's not that a guy known for his rubber arm went 124 pitches and got better as he went along - although that's very cool - but that it's a sign of Dice-K's growing composure on the mound and with that composure his growing ability to dominate some downright scary offenses. I think about that increased confidence and I think Matsuzaka and his place in the brick wall Red Sox rotation and I start to get the same jittery, pit-of-the-stomach excitement I got three years ago, thinking about the Sox winning a World Series. If this team stays healthy...man, it's gonna dominate.
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