It's Good to Be the King

As a wise man once said, "It's good to be the king."

(OK, it was Mel Brooks...)

The general goodness of monarchy was on display yesterday in Boston, when "King" Felix Hernandez overshadowed the Fenway Park debut of $100 million man Daisuke Matsuzaka by throwing a one-hit shutout.

Hernandez utterly dominated the Sox, flirting with a no-hitter until J.D. Drew punched a single up the middle to lead off the eighth inning. He struck out six batters and walked two.

In all, it was a very impressive follow up to his similarly dominant outing Opening Day, in which he blanked the A's for eight innings and struck out twelve. Through two starts, the league hasn't even been able to muster very many loud outs off King Felix... ESPN's Buster Olney reports (ESPN Insider subscription required) reports that, of 58 batters Hernandez has faced in two games, only seven balls have been hit to the outfield -- and three of those were fly-outs.

Remarkably, Hernandez' shutout obscured another very solid outing from Matsuzaka. Dice-K won't get any headlines for it, but his pitching line of three earned runs over seven innings pitched, with four strikeouts and two walks, really wasn't half bad. A team with Manny Ramirez and David Ortiz won't get shut out very often, and Matsuzaka, even in a loss, showed that he's the real deal.

He just isn't the king.

Originally published at About Baseball