Boston's Matsuzaka shuts down Seattle in 4-2 win

[July 23, 2008]  SEATTLE (AP) -- Boston's Daisuke Matsuzaka continued his masterful pitching away from Fenway Park, and J.D. Drew's first inning homer helped the Red Sox beat the Seattle Mariners 4-2 on Tuesday night.

After dropping five straight on the road, the Red Sox seem to have found a remedy against the lowly Mariners, who fell a season-worst 24 games under .500 with their fourth-straight loss.

Matsuzaka only made Seattle's anemic offense look even more hapless.

Dice-K (11-1) held Seattle to just five hits and shut out Seattle into the eighth, improving to 5-0 with a 2.20 ERA in eight starts away from home.

Matsuzaka saw his scoreless innings streak end at 24 1-3 innings when countryman Ichiro Suzuki lined an RBI double over center fielder Coco Crisp with one out in the bottom of the eighth. It was the first run allowed by Matsuzaka since the first inning against Tampa Bay on July 2 when Evan Longoria hit a two-out RBI single. Matsuzaka had not allowed an earned run in his previous two starts.

Jose Lopez followed with an RBI single to score Suzuki and knock out Matsuzaka, who walked three and struck out six. Hideki Okajima got the final two outs of the eighth and Jonathan Papelbon pitched the ninth for his 30 save in 34 chances.

With the way he's been pitching, Matsuzaka probably felt quite comfortable walking to the mound in the bottom of the first already with a 1-0 lead. Drew provided that advantage, hitting his 18th homer of the season in the top of the first on a 3-2 pitch from Seattle starter R.A. Dickey. The homer barely avoided the glove Suzuki, who slightly misjudged his leap at the wall and watched the homer plop into the glove of a fan in the first row.

Boston added three more in the fifth, started by Jacoby Ellsbury's bunt single and Dustin Pedroia's ringing liner that left a plume of chalk as it landed on the left-field foul line. It was Pedroia's 23rd straight road game with a hit, and has a hit in 24 of his last 25 overall games. Drew and rookie Jed Lowrie added sacrifice flies in the inning around Mike Lowell's RBI double.

Seattle's only significant challenge to Matsuzaka appeared to come in the fourth when Raul Ibanez led off with a walk and Jose Vidro lined a single into center. Adrian Beltre helped out Dice-K weakly grounding into a double play and Jeremy Reed grounded out to end the inning with Ibanez standing at third.

Otherwise, Matsuzaka set down 12 of the next 13 batters he faced after Vidro's single until rookie Brian LaHair singled leading off the eighth with his first major league hit. Suzuki then laced his double, just his fourth career hit off Dice-K.

Dickey (2-5) pitched 6 1-3 innings, allowing nine hits and four runs, and didn't strike out a batter for the first time in his eight starts this season. Dickey has just one win as a starter since entering the rotation on a regular basis in the middle of June.

Notes: Seattle rookie C Jeff Clement left the game in the third inning after a foul ball clipped his right hand and ripped the finger nail off his thumb. He was replaced by Kenji Johjima. ... Suzuki went 1-for-2 and is six hits shy of 3,000 combined hits in his professional baseball career in Japan and with the Mariners. ... Tuesday was Boston's 200th win all-time against the Mariners (200-147).

[Associated Press; By TIM BOOTH]

Copyright 2008 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.