Gratuitous Exiles from Sawx Nation Blogging

Dice-K's big debut:

After just one start, John Buck believes Daisuke Matsuzaka is ace-quality. Mixing several pitches for consistent strikes, Matsuzaka delivered a terrific performance in his Major League debut against the Royals on Thursday afternoon at Kauffman Stadium. The Japanese phenom struck out 10 hitters over seven innings and allowed just one run in a 4-1 Red Sox victory.

Matsuzaka threw fastballs, sliders, changeups, cutters and several pitches that the Royals couldn't identify during his outing.

"Usually all of the No. 1's are guys who can do that," Buck said of Matsuzaka's arsenal and pinpoint control. "They have the ability to have three or four pitches, so even if they make a mistake they can get swings and misses.

That's kind of the stuff that he has."

Other than leadoff man David DeJesus, no other Royal had more than one hit. DeJesus singled to left to start the bottom of the first and homered just inside the right-field foul pole in the sixth.

What was the pitch he hit out?

"I think it was a gyroball," DeJesus said with a laugh. "I know a gyro is a Greek sandwich. No, it was a fastball inside and I hit out. I hit a line drive and I didn't think it was going to go."

I love that bit about the gyroball.

38 UPDATE: Hoss dissects his loss at KC. Fascinating stuff---Dan Shaughnessy and his ilk should be quaking in their boots at this. I was wondering how Schilling would handle blogging about a loss, particularly on opening day. The answer? About what you would expect from Schilling: funny, honest, insightful, and right on the money. It's a long season, and it's going to be a fun one..