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| Matsuzaka had his first quality start of the season |
After an incredibly slow start, with newly-signed superstar Carl Crawford batting well under the Mendoza line, the Red Sox were in danger of watching the rest of the division pull away from them before the weather even warmed up in Boston. However, the tables might finally be starting to turn up in Beantown, as the pitching the Red Sox have sorely needed starts to come around. After the rotation put up a 5.51 ERA between April 7th and 13th, that's dropped down to 1.80 in the last four games, including only two earned runs in the last 20 innings. Tonight, it was Daisuke "Dice-K" Matsuzaka going seven shutout innings before turning it over to Alfredo Aceves and Tim Wakefield, who pitched an inning each to close out the Blue Jays. In the other half of the game, the Red Sox offense put up nine runs, tying a season high set in an April 8 win over the Yankees. This wasn't the first 70+ game score--where 50 is considered a "quality start"--the Red Sox have had this year (they've had two others), but they've also had five starters putting up a game score under 30. The Red Sox still have enough time to pull back to .500 by May, but they're quickly running out of time.
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