Daisuke deals near no-no in defeat of Phillies

Juan Castro’s flare over shortstop Marco Scutaro's head broke up Daisuke Matsuzaka's no-hit bid with two outs in the eighth inning. The Red Sox still sailed to a 5-0 win over the Phillies.

Four outs separated the Phillies from suffering their first no-hitter since 1978. It wasn't for a lack of trying. The Red Sox are spinning this as Daisuke's atonement for an awful outing against the Yankees after which he called out his catcher. Speaking on last night's performance, Red Sox manager Terry Francona told reporters “From the very beginning, you could see he got in a rhythm. That’s the best fastball we’ve seen. He established that. His slider, he had one of the best changeups we’ve seen, we made some great plays behind him - that was fun to watch.” (courtesy of ex-Phillies scribe Scott Lauber, who now covers the Sox for the Boston Herald.)

From the Phillies' side, it was a night of hitting the ball hard but right at them, starting in the first with a Chase Utley screamer to leaping second baseman Dustin Pedroia, who flipped to first for the double play; the Phillies hit into two twin killings, the other happening on a nice play at third by two-time Gold Glove winner Adrian Beltre. Ryan Howard and Jayson Werth also scorched a couple balls to no avail. Boston played great defense all night.

Meanwhile, Kyle Kendrick kept it a game for the first four innings until he became irrevocably untethered in a four-run fifth, finishing with eight hits, two walks and five runs over 4 2-3 innings, the first time a Phillies' starter couldn't survive at least five innings since April 14, which was Kendrick's 1 2-3 inning disaster against Washington. That cleared the mound for bullpen B-listers Antonio Bastardo, David Herndon and Nelson Figueroa, who hadn't pitched since May 3, to pitch 4 1-3 shutout innings, the night's only real positive.

No biggie - Tim Wakefield and Roy Halladay decide the rubber game today at 1:35. Time for Mick Billmeyer to dust off his knuckleball during BP.

Random thought of the game: Raul Ibanez's failure to get to a ball to left played a key role in Boston's rally. Stat of the game: Greg Dobbs is now 10-71 (.141) his last two seasons as a pinch hitter, including just 3 XHB with 9 BBs to go with 16 Ks. (courtesy of MG)

Comments

[Scott]

I think Dice-K messed up our hitters with his humping motion...

[Omi Tang]

Things that I still think that would be amazing if happened for a play off run that I think is only a 2% chance of happening aka very UNLIKELY to happen but isn't completely crazy.

A) Ed Wade decides to give Oswalt to Philadelphia for some middling prospects. And for those of you who say this is crazy, we just need a slight bump in payroll. We have the Moyer contract coming off the books this year to accommodate Oswalt's contract, we are a contender this year and next plus Ed Wade's trade history is awful/ good for us now.

B) The Mariners are out of contention and they want prospects for Cliff Lee. Since they already know about Aumont and Ramirez and Gillies, they end up taking two of them back for Cliff Lee. In effect, the Phils would have gotten a free minor leaguer for a half a season rental.

Both of these scenarios are VERY unlikely.... But a guy can dream...

[RSB]

"irrevocably untethered"...nice! Going to have to remember that for the next time Kendrick (or anyone else) crashes and burns.

[PHinBK]

Wouldn't trading for another starter be a giant admission by Rube that moving Lee wasnt the right move?

Trading for a quality starter will cost prospects which of course depletes the farm. So how can you trade a Cy Young winner to get prospects, to turn around six months later and trade prospects to get another pitcher? How do you posture that the future is a concern and then turn around and show that the present is a priority?

[J.R. King]

Ibanez being unable to get to that ball has really bothered me all night.

[EastFallowfield]

Today's lineup vs. BOS: Victorino CF, Dobbs 3B, Utley 2B, Howard 1B, Werth RF, Ibanez LF, Castro SS, Hoover C, Halladay P.

Zolecki tweet.

[Heather]

Re: the lineup...EW. Why can't we give just 1 guy the day off? I hope we're not hosing Halladay again by fielding 2 extra replacements.

[bay_area_phan]

dennyb will probably complain about this lineup on the ground that Utley & Howard haven't gotten enough rest & Gload & Valdez should be starting in their place.

I'm with Heather. We've already got one starter out of the lineup, being replaced by garbage. Do we really need both Dobbs AND Hoover in the lineup? That's a ridiculous drop-off at 3 of our 8 starting positions.

[LwrSlwrGeorge]

RE: the lineup.

Feels like a loss.

[jr]

O ye of little faith.

[J.R. King]

Can't Charlie just get his bench players the at-bats they need WITHOUT removing starters.

I mean, c'mon.

[The Truth Injection]

Oh no...Dobbs is getting a start. Let's sound the loss alarm

[mikeh]

I love Dobbs but as you pointed to JW, he doesn't produce off the bench anymore.

[CJ]

I love it... for months, everyone complained that our bench players weren't getting enough at bats and it made them bad pinch hitters.

Now that they've gotten some recent starts? Well, I'm sure you can guess.

Typical.

[shipsass]

Anyone else here have a plan B partial season ticket package? We have seen five home games, four of them pitched by KK. The other was the rainy Halladay loss to Pittsburgh.

[Joe]

Dobbs is a great guy but can't play anymore. Gload is your left handed pinchhitter. Dobbs can't field. Bring burrell back!