Red Sox get good pitching from ace

Daisuke Matsuzaka, Boston's 103 million pitcher from Japan, foiled Bucs.
BRADENTON, Fla. (AP) -- Now, those are the results the Red Sox hoped for when they invested 103 million in Daisuke Matsuzaka.
Matsuzaka hoped for more.
In the best outing by a Boston pitcher this spring training, 'Dice-K' dominated -- one run, one single, one walk and one standing ovation. In 5 2/3 innings, he struck out seven and the Red Sox beat the Pittsburgh Pirates 7-3 on Wednesday.
Matsuzaka fanned the Pirates' best hitter, Jason Bay, twice on a total of seven pitches and went to three-ball counts on only four of his 20 batters.
But his overview of the outing was "that I was able to pitch despite struggling a little bit," he said through an interpreter. "I was having a little but of trouble controlling my fastball.
The wind may have contributed to that.
"If that's struggling, we're in for some fun," manager Terry Francona said. "I think he's a perfectionist."
Strong finish
In Matsuzaka's next to last spring start in Florida, he finished strongly when he struck out Don Kelly after the Pirates shortstop had stayed alive by fouling off six of the previous seven pitches.
The Red Sox posted the winning bid of 51.11 million for the right to negotiate with the Japanese star. Then he agreed to a six-year, 52 million contract.
In his first two starts, he allowed three hits in five scoreless innings. In his third start, last Friday, he allowed one run and three hits to the Los Angeles Dodgers' first four batters then retired the next five.
He never pitched in the third because a downpour forced cancellation of the game. He threw 34 pitches and 77 more in a simulated game in a batting cage after the game was called.
On Wednesday, he threw 92 pitches, 62 for strikes.
The only problem he had with the weather was the wind, which turned his straight fastball into a "shooto cut," he said, the Japanese name for a pitch that breaks to the right, like a screwball.
"I generally don't consider that shooto cut to be a problem," Matsuzaka said, "so I was just compensating appropriately."
The only hit off Matsuzaka
He started by hitting Chris Duffy with his second pitch of the game. He retired the next two batters on grounders, moving Duffy to third. Adam LaRoche then looped an RBI single in front of a sliding right fielder J.D. Drew, the only hit off Matsuzaka.
"I'd like to say he's going to have some challenges along the way," LaRoche said, "but maybe he won't."
Matsuzaka then struck out Bay, starting a string of 11 batters he retired before he walked Nate McLouth with one out in the fifth, but McLouth was stranded at first.
The MVP of last year's World Baseball Classic started the sixth by getting Duffy to fly out, then won a 12-pitch confrontation with Kelly.
With the count 2-2, Kelly fouled off the next four pitches. After another ball, he fouled off two more. Then he tipped Matsuzaka's final pitch of the game, a changeup, into Jason Varitek's glove for a strikeout.
Francona, Varitek and the four infielders then met at the mound and Matsuzaka strode off, doffed his cap and bowed as the crowd stood and cheered.
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