Red Sox starter Daisuke Matsuzaka went eight dominating innings for the win.

Journal / Bob Breidenbach

BOSTON — OK, so who was that guy on the mound, wearing the Boston Red Sox jersey with the No. 18 on the back?

The scorecard listed the owner of that uniform to be Daisuke Matsuzaka.

It just didn’t add up, though. On the mound wearing No. 18 last night was a right-hander who threw strikes, got ahead of the hitters and worked quickly and efficiently throughout a sparkling eight-inning, 104-pitch stint that led the Red Sox to an 8-0 victory over the Chicago White Sox at Fenway Park.

Such outings from Matsuzaka are rare, but instead of laboring as he usually does, inflating his pitch count and winding up with an abbreviated-if-winning outing, Dice-K was much more ace-like against the White Sox, the top team in the American League Central.

Matsuzaka permitted only two hits and, showing great life on his fastball and bite on his breaking pitches, fanned seven. Best of all, Dice-K walked only two, and one of those came after a long wait while the Sox were scoring four runs in the sixth. Indeed, he went to three-ball counts on only four batters.

And the bottom line was that, thanks to a 15-hit attack that broke the game open with four unearned runs in the sixth, Matsuzaka improved his record to 16-2 and lowered his earned-run average to 2.82.

The only hits off Matsuzaka were a ground-ball single by Jermaine Dye leading off the second and a single into the left-field corner by Alexei Ramirez leading off the third.

“He was throwing his fastball in to the right-hand hitters aggressively and for strikes, which opened up the outside of the plate,” said manager Terry Francona. “His slider was good. Both pitches were real strong.

“Here it is almost September and he seems to have a lot left in the tank, which is good news,” added Francona.

Nevertheless, Francona elected not to allow Matsuzaka a chance to finish off what would have been his first shutout and complete game of the year. Francona pulled the plug after 104 pitches.

“I’m sure he could have gone out there and finished off the ninth, but I didn’t think that was the right thing to do,” said Francona.

Matsuzaka said he was ready, willing and able to go the distance, but he quickly realized he wasn’t about to get the chance.

“I had a rough idea of my pitch count and I was ready to go back out there, but when I saw Tito coming up to me (in the dugout after the eighth) I knew that was it. I’ve become more accepting of that,” said Matsuzaka, whose 16 wins tie Hideo Nomo for the most won by a Japanese pitcher in the majors.

“I wanted to pitch a good game against them,” he said. “We may see them later (in the playoffs). I was able to pitch forcefully against them. I was happy with that. I’m not sure if it was my best (game) in terms of conditioning, but the result was good.”

Through five innings, the Red Sox were leading, 3-0, but they could have had a much bigger advantage. Boston strafed Chicago starter Javier Vazquez for nine hits over the first five innings, but dented home plate on only Kevin Youkilis’ bases-loaded, no-out groundout to third in the first inning and on RBI doubles by David Ortiz and newcomer Mark Kotsay in the fifth.

In the sixth, though, Chicago catcher A.J. Pierzynski did the Red Sox a favor. He dropped Alex Cora’s foul popup for an error. So instead of the first out of the inning, Cora had an extra life, and he took advantage of it by pulling a double into the right-field corner.

Vazquez retired the next two hitters, but by the time the White Sox were able to get the third out, Pedroia walked (Vazquez), Ortiz walked (Horacio Ramirez), Youkilis was hit by a pitch for an RBI (D.J. Carrasco) and Kevin Bay rifled a 1-and-2 pitch off the wall in left-center for a three-run double (Carrasco).

And just like that, it was a 7-0 game and in the bag for Boston. Not that the Red Sox were done mashing. Boston pounded out three more hits in pushing another run across the plate. The Sox wound up with seven doubles, one for every starter with the exception of rookies Jacoby Ellsbury and Jed Lowrie.Red Sox

8

White Sox

0

Next Game

Tonight

vs. Chicago,

7:05 p.m.

skrasner@projo.com