BOSTON — And on this night, the fourth shall be first for Daisuke Matsuzaka.

In two of his previous three starts, Dice-K inexplicably and suddenly lost command of all of his pitches in the fourth inning.

In Toronto on April 17, the fourth-inning meltdown manifested itself in a 38-pitch struggle during which Matsuzaka gave up two hits and walked three, his only three bases on balls of the game. One of those walks pushed home a second run in a 2-1 loss.

Then, in his last start, last Friday night in New York, the right-hander suffered through a 41-pitch fourth inning. He walked three in a row at one point in the inning, during which he gave up four runs.

Last night, Matsuzaka didn’t wait until the fourth to have command issues. It happened right from his very first batter, when he opened the game by losing Seattle’s Ichiro Suzuki on a full-count walk.

And the inning just spun out of control from there. Matsuzaka wound up throwing 35 pitches. He walked the first three batters of the game and hit the fifth batter, Richie Sexson, on an 0-and-2 pitch.

Of his first 18 pitches, only six were strikes. Matsuzaka has a deep arsenal of pitches, but he couldn’t get any of them over consistently at the outset. The fastball, cutter, changeup and curveball all were missing the strike zone. Maybe he should have resorted to throwing the gyro ball.

He finally found his command. Of his final 17 pitches in the inning, 15 were strikes, as he began pounding the strike zone with his fastball, generally either 92 or 93 mph. But an error by shortstop Julio Lugo, who also failed to snag a popup, and a two-run double by Jose Guillen, plunged the Red Sox into a 5-0 hole before they had come to the plate.

So what gives?

Is it a stretch to say he has trouble pitching out of the stretch?

Once someone gets on, the $103-million Japanese import becomes decidedly ordinary.

In the first, after a leadoff walk to Ichiro, Matsuzaka faced nine batters out of the stretch. Of those nine batters, five reached base, not counting Lugo’s error. There were two hits, two walks and a hit batsman.

He faced six more batters while pitching out of the stretch, and three of them reached — albeit on a bloop single and an infield single as well as a scorched one-hop single off the Green Monster by Sexson on an 0-and-2 pitch.

Interestingly, Matsuzaka elects to pitch out of the stretch in bases-loaded and second-and-third situations, when he could go out of the full windup.

Whether it’s mechanical troubles out of the stretch or not, that one bad, high-pitch-count inning he has been suffering through has cost him from going deep into a game. Last night, he was done after five innings, having thrown 96 pitches. His earned-run average jumped from 4.36 to a bloated 5.45.

Let’s have fun

Oh, yeah, you’ve got to have fun in this game.

That has been Manny Ramirez’s mantra, no matter the situation. In Manny’s world, baseball is a game, so why not have fun.

Which explains why, in the middle of the Mariners’ distressing five-run uprising against Matsuzaka in the first that had silenced the crowd, Manny played the role of Willie Mays, making a basket catch of Jose Lopez’s shallow fly ball with two on and one out.

Waiting for his pitch

The more pitches you see in an at-bat, the better opportunity for a positive result in that at-bat.

Kevin Youkilis, who has been called The Greek God of Walks in the book, Moneyball, has lived that philosophy since entering professional ball.

Since joining Boston as a regular, Youkilis has been among the league leaders in pitches per at-bat, and he has helped further his reputation along those lines the last two games.

In his first three at-bats last night, Youkilis ran the count to 3-and-2 each time. He walked, bashed a single to center and struck out. The whiff came when he uncharacteristically chased a pitch out of the strike zone.

Over those first three at-bats, Youkilis saw 19 pitches.

That continued a string of long at-bats for the Sox’ first baseman. Over his final three plate appearances Wednesday night, Youkilis also saw 19 pitches, at least five each time up. He walked twice and was hit by a pitch.

Security breach

The Sox need some new hit-and-run signs, apparently.

Last night, with Wily Mo Pena on first and none out in a 7-7 game in the fifth, Boston manager Terry Francona put on the hit-and-run. But the Mariners smelled it out, calling a pitchout. Pena was a dead duck at second base.

It was the second night in a row that happened. On Wednesday night against Oakland, Mike Lowell took off from first on a hit-and-run play. The Athletics, though sniffed it out, calling a pitchout. Lowell was hung out to dry in the middle of the baseline, but managed to reach second anyway on a bad throw from catcher Jason Kendall.

Bear hug

David Ortiz was trapped in the baseline on Youkilis’ grounder in the sixth, which the Mariners turned into a 4-3-6 double play.

Ortiz was put out in a rundown, giving up and letting himself be tagged by shortstop Yuniesky Betancourt. Ortiz gave Betancourt a big hug as they met in a nice, polite out that would have had old-timers fuming at the on-field display of camaraderie between opponents.

The crowd roared in laughter as the 6-foot-4, 230-pound Ortiz hugged the diminutive 5-10, 190-pound (it says in the media guide) Betancourt.

Now, if Manny had done the same thing, would the reaction have been the same?

Screen play

Adrian Beltre might have run himself into an out in the first inning by attempting to screen Lugo on a ground ball to shortstop with the bases filled and none out.

Beltre was running from second when Raul Ibanez hit a grounder a bit toward the hole. Beltre took a step toward the ball, then ran past it as it approached Lugo. Lugo, though, made the catch and smartly threw to third base, nipping Beltre there for a forceout.

Guillen’s screening of Lugo in the fifth, though, was more effective and productive. Guillen let Betancourt’s grounder roll through his legs. Lugo fielded it but threw high to first. Betancourt was given credit for a hit, and the infield single delivered the run that tied the game at 7-7.

Taking a chance

Ichiro racked up his second stolen base of the year in an odd bit of baserunning.

The Mariners’ leadoff man took off on a 3-and-0 pitch to Beltre. That’s not generally a great pitch to run on because the hitter tends to be taking the pitch and even if it’s a strike, the batter still has the advantage, so why take the chance.

Beltre was taking, but Ichiro made it safely to second, beating the throw from catcher Jason Varitek.

skrasner@projo.com