Boston Red Sox’s Daisuke Matsuzaka fortune continued to behave erratically as the Red Sox star, whose injuries and performance had been a matter of concern for Boston brass, took a no-hitter into the eighth inning at Philadelphia tonight until a two-out, eighth-inning single by Juan Castro ended his bid.
Matsuzaka entered the eighth inning with a 5-0 lead, and had navigated the Phillies lineup with four walks, but no hits. Matsuzaka showed some form when he yielded a leadoff walk to Raul Ibanez but induced a line-drive double play from Carlos Ruiz to keep his no-no alive.
Matsuzaka poor form can be gauged from the fact that he finished with eight scoreless innings, five strikeouts and just one hit allowed. Dice-K entered Saturday's game with a 7.89 ERA.
David Ortiz started at first base scoring two runs and had an RBI double. Adrian Beltre's scored two-run double. Phillies starter Kyle Kendrick (2-2) gave up all five Boston runs and remained unbeaten out of the fifth inning.
