Even more eyes on Daisuke

Well, Daisuke came through (sort of) in Game 7. He went five and got the win but wasn't exactly impressive. Now the Red Sox are up 2-0 on the Rockies who have obviously come back down to earth after having to wait eight days between games. Daisuke will be back on the mound again for Game Three in Colorado. Unlike the Game Three of the ALCS there will be a bit less pressure on Daisuke to produce; the Sox are on the road and have a two game cushion and only need to take one on the road to get the series back to Boston for the finale (not that you necessarily want that to happen if you are a Sox fan). However, this is the World Series. In Game Two Hideki Okajima became the first Japan-born player to pitch in the World Series. Matsuzaka will be the first Japan-born pitcher to start in the World Series in Game Three. So there will be pressure. Also, the coverage of this game in Japan should be pretty extensive since the game will be played on a Sunday morning (NHK BS-1 from 9:10 AM -- watch the pitchers warm up! It's exciting! Or not. NHK General from 10:00 -- skip the warm-up and the US National anthem!). And don't forget the $103 million. Never forget the $103 million.

There are lots and lots of stories about Game Three but there is one in particular I'd like to share by Jeff Passan about Hideki Okajima: "He needs to touch the parrot," Red Sox reliever Kyle Snyder said. "Who knows what happens if he doesn't?"

Enjoy the..huh? What's that? Is someone waving in the back there? Looks like he's wearing a Rockies uniform. Hey, it's Kaz Matsui!

Actually, I'm just being mean. NHK has tried to make up for lost time (i.e. not airing any of the Rockies play-off games on TV) by replaying every Kaz at-bat several times. Unfortunately, Kaz is 1-8 so far in the World Series with three Ks (one of them to Okajima) and you can only look at multiple angles of strike-outs so many times. I'm sure that Kaz will get more airtime as the Japanese announcers try to milk the fact that he and D-Mat were teammates on the Seibu Lions.

Anyway, enjoy the game!