Sunday, March 16, 2008

Dice-K Goes, Beckett Stays

Lots of good news for the Red Sox pitching staff this weekend.

Daisuke Matsuzaka's wife Tomoyo gave birth to a boy on Saturday, the couple's second child. Congratulations to the Matsuzakas on the new addition to their family. And that's VERY good news for the Red Sox and their fans, as Dice-K can now travel home to Japan this week with the team and start one of the two games at the Tokyo Dome against the Oakland A's.

And the word on Josh Beckett continues to get better. Terry Francona has confirmed what everyone seemed to know, that Beckett will stay back in Florida for the Japan trip. It's not worth risking his balky back on such a very long trip. He played catch with pitching coach John Farrell yesterday and reported no problems with the back. Tito did not say when he'd pitch next, but he may very well be in line to start one of the games at Oakland either April 1st or 2nd when the regular season resumes for both clubs.

2 comments:

SoSock said...

I for one was thrilled that Wife-K got that boy out early and Dice can go. I think his priorities are right, and he should have stayed if this had not happened. I heard some comments before that he should suck it up and go anyway. The old "that's the way it was in the old days" bit. I'm glad we've evolved past that point. But I'm also glad it worked out as it did and the folks in Japan will get to see a special one of their own doing his thing. All is right.

BklynSoxFan said...

Life has a funny way of working out sometimes, Sosock.