The big-ticket pitching acquisitions of the Yankees and Red Sox were on display yesterday, with decidedly different results.
Boston's $100 million rookie Daisuke Matsuzaka lived up to the considerable hype in his first start, notching ten strikeouts in a 4-1 win over the Royals at frigid Kaufman Stadium. Dice-K used his full array of pitches (not counting the entirely fictional gyroball), and regularly hit the mid-90s on the radar gun. He left the game after seven innings, having allowed one run on a homer by David DeJesus and just one walk.
Meanwhile, on a similarly frigid evening in the Bronx, Andy Pettitte returned to Yankee Stadium, but the results were far less impressive. The veteran lefty lasted just four innings and allowed four runs, two of them earned. The occasional snow flurries weren't enough to justify several defensive mishaps -- including two errors by Derek Jeter.
Pettitte was the Yanks' biggest offseason acquisition. They'll need him to rebound in a big way and anchor a starting rotation already depleted by Chien-Ming Wang's hamstring injury. Another four-inning start, and Brian Cashman's "build from within" initiative might be in jeopardy.
Originally published at About Baseball
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