Now that's more like it. Coming off his worst outing in a Red Sox uniform, Daisuke Matsuzaka bounced back with 5 shutout innings to lead the Sox over the Astros Friday night.
Dice-K struck out the side in the 1st and never looked back. He got out of a bases loaded jam in the 5th - his only bad inning of the night - and left the game with a 3-0 lead on his way to his 9th win of the season.
J.D. Drew once again came through with the big hit - a 3-run bomb in the 3rd to give the Sox all the runs they would need.
BOX SCORE: Red Sox 6, Astros 1
Dustin Pedroia went 3-for-4 with 2 runs and an RBI and Kevin Youkilis had 4 hits to raise his average to .313.
The pitching was outstanding as Craig Hansen and Manny Delcarmen each tossed a perfect inning and Jonathan Papelbon got a 4-out save on just 13 pitches.
The only blemish was Hideki Okajima who once again struggled allowing the only run of the game to the Astros.
It's time to take Okie Doke out of the 8th-inning spot. In his last 10 outings he's allowed 18 hits including 2 home runs over 8 2/3 innings for a 10.47 ERA. Ouch!
This was a huge win to start the big 10-game road trip, especially since Tampa spanked the Pirates and the Yankees were able to split their doubleheader with the Mets.
It looked like the Mets had a good chance to sweep, but they blew some great scoring chances early against Sidney the freakin Pig Ponson and then got killed in the nightcap. I guess the Sox got rid of Pedro just in time.
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