BOSTON — The last time he pitched, Daisuke Matsuzaka was physically sick. Last night, he just felt sick because of the way he pitched.

To his credit, Matsuzaka did not use last week’s illness as an excuse for the way he worked in his team’s 8-4 loss to Cleveland. Matsuzaka said he began feeling better soon after his start in Texas, one in which he allowed five runs in five innings, yet still recorded the victory.

“I don’t think there was any specific effect. I was able to prepare for this start as I usually do,” he said.

The problem this time, as he went 5 2/3 innings and was roughed up for 12 hits and six runs, was with his location.

“I didn’t think he located his fastball like he has and like he needs to do against a team like Cleveland,” said Sox manager Terry Francona. “Against a lineup like that, if you don’t consistently make pitches, they can hurt you.”

Matsuzaka only partially agreed with that assessment.

“Not only my fastball, but overall I had problems,” he said.

Matsuzaka now has a 7-3 record, and while the result last night ended a personal six-game winning streak and was his first defeat in six weeks, his earned-run average is now up to 4.83. He has had problems with consistency. He has allowed at least four runs in five of his 11 starts. Eighteen of the 39 runs he has allowed have come in four innings.

He knows he has to work on being more consistent, although the way he explained it is not exactly typical of most Major League players.

“For me, above all else, I’m trying to improve my game overall. It is a challenge,” he said. “I keep it in mind. I don’t want to be a burden to my teammates. I hope I achieve the level of consistency sooner rather than later.”

Slumping Yankees still ‘star’-studded

The Yankees may be slumping but their fans are still stuffing the all-star ballot boxes. In the most recent all-star vote results, Derek Jeter and Alex Rodriguez lead all players. Robinson Cano is the third Yankee to lead at his position.

David Ortiz, listed as a first baseman, is first. Manny Ramirez is the second-leading vote-getter among A.L. outfielders. Kevin Youkilis, by the way, is not even listed on this year’s ballot.

Francona to visit to McCoy tonight

What do major-league managers do on a night off? Go to a ballgame.

That’s Francona’s plan tonight anyways. He says he and pitching coach John Farrell plan to head to McCoy Stadium tonight and watch the PawSox. Mike Timlin is due to pitch. He’s struggled in a battle back from tendonitis in his pitching shoulder but is making progress.

“The reason he was going back was to repeat his delivery and be a little more consistent,” Francona said.

“I think [Tuesday] showed he’s not quite there. I think he feels healthy. He feels like he’s got pretty good arm strength, but as far as repeating his pitches in his delivery, that’s why he’s there doing it. I don’t want to speak for him. I think he’s frustrated, but I think he understands.”

Sox keeping draft hopes up

Despite not picking until 55th in next week’s Major League Baseball amateur draft, the Red Sox hope to land several impact players.

The Sox lost their first-round pick in the draft to Los Angeles when they signed free-agent shortstop Julio Lugo.

Boston’s first pick comes in the “sandwich” round between the first and second rounds as compensation for the Reds signing Type-A free-agent Alex Gonzalez.

The Sox have another pick in the sandwich round — 62nd — for the Indians’ signing of reliever Keith Foulke, even though the right-hander retired a few days into training camp.

Despite their draft position, Boston could still wind up with some good players, said general manager Theo Epstein.

“I think we can still make an impact,” said Epstein during a press conference yesterday. “That [picking low] is when you have to do a good job of preparing for the unexpected. In 2002, Jon Lester [second round] fell down to us. In 2004, Dustin Pedroia fell [to the second round, the 65th pick]. So we take the same approach every year. You never know who might be there.”

Jason McLeod, the team’s director of amateur scouting, said this will be a draft dominated by high school players. The Sox’ philosophy on taking high schoolers is to select kids they think are already mentally and physically prepared to play professional baseball. There are few, if any, sure things in evaluating talent, the two men agreed, especially when compared to the NFL and NBA drafts.

“It’s an imperfect pursuit,” said Epstein. “Regardless of how thorough you are, you are projecting. It will always be an imperfect science.”

To illustrate his point, Epstein told a story about former Bishop Hendricken star Rocco Baldelli, who the Tampa Bay Devil Rays selected with the sixth pick in the first round of the 2000 draft.

“All of a sudden, about a month before the draft, a tape started circulating showing him taking swings in his basement and playing volleyball, to show his athleticism,” said Epstein with a chuckle. “It was like a bootleg tape. So just before the draft there were scouts taking red-eye flights to Rhode Island to maybe see one game (of Baldelli’s career) based on a volleyball tape.”

Baldelli, though slowed recently by injuries, has proven to be a solid choice by the Rays.

Lugo gets a rest

Sox manager Terry Francona gave another of his regulars some time off last night. and with today’s off-day Julio Lugo gets to rest for two days. Coco Crisp replaced Lugo as the leadoff hitter and Alex Cora played shortstop and hit eighth. Lugo is mired in a tough slump, with just seven hits (.132) in his last 12 games, but with an off-day today he will get two days off.

“He’s fine,” Francona said of Lugo. “Sometimes back-to-back [days off], we think is good; sometimes we don’t think it’s good,” Francona said. “We think it will be really good for him.”

Rotation juggled

With Josh Beckett joining the rotation this week, plus an off-day, the Sox needed to juggle their rotation a bit. Francona said the easy call was to push Julian Tavarez up two days to Monday’s contest in Oakland and come back with Curt Schilling and Beckett on their normal four-days’ rest for the Saturday-Sunday games in the series against the Yankees.

The Yankees will insert Roger Clemens into their rotation for Monday’s game in Chicago against the White Sox. Manager Joe Torre told reporters following the team that the quality of his pitchers set to face the Red Sox (Chien-Ming Wang, Mike Mussina and Andy Pettitte) held him back from getting the Rocket to take off at Fenway.

“You’d obviously be tempted if you had a kid pitching and you can replace him with Roger Clemens,” Torre said, “but when you have Wang, Moose and Andy, there’s really not the temptation to do that.”

pkenyon@projo.com