Daisuke Wild In Windy Florida

He's human after all. We all knew that. And on a windy day in Florida in a nationally televised ESPN game, Daisuke Matsuzaka had to stuggle to find his control. He finally did, but it took him four innings of his six to do it. This from the Courant, and then a comment from me. Title click for the entire article, including an analysis of Craig Hansen's terrible outing in relief of Daisuke. Here you go..........

"Matsuzaka threw 104 pitches, 59 for strikes, and walked one batter in each inning. He also crossed up catcher Jason Varitek on what should have been a first-inning pitchout and instead became a passed ball.
Varitek said Matsuzaka didn't have as good a feel for his pitches as he did last week, when he allowed one hit to the Pirates in 52/3 innings.
"It seemed like all his off-speed stuff he wasn't as sharp with, and the location of his fastball wasn't as good," Varitek said. "The rotation on some of his breaking balls weren't the same. He looked like he had a tough feel on the ball. Where he's used to being able to throw certain pitches to get ahead, he was falling behind today."
But Varitek said Matsuzaka appeared to right himself, striking out four in the final two innings."

Peter here, and by the way, over those six innings, he allowed no runs and no hits. So now we know he won't be Superman all the time. We also know this. It's early. He has a tune up on Saturday when he will throw forty pitches or so. And then his first start, one week from Thursday. The eyes of RSN will be watching. Mine included.
Craig Hansen relieved Daisuke in the seventh, and promptly dashed any hope of a big league start to the 2007 season. He allowed 5 runs and 5 hits, and appeared to be throwing the ball rather than pitching it. When you title click, the article you link to goes into it in great detail. So don't miss it.
I'll be back later on this getting better (for me) Tuesday.