Daisuke Matsuzaka, with the full support of his teammates and the fans, went out and did what he had to do in Game Seven.

The Providence Journal / Bob Breidenbach

BOSTON — Redemption can be found in the most stressful of places, across cultures and languages.

For two postseason starts, Daisuke Matsuzaka had fallen far short of expectations — both his own and that of others.

Both times, he failed to get out of the fifth inning. For this, the Red Sox had shelled out $103 million?

Matsuzaka himself seemed crushed by his last outing, in Game Three in Cleveland. He sat in solitude in front of his locker in the visitor’s clubhouse, occasionally rapping himself in the head with his own glove.

His loss in Game Three put the Red Sox behind in the series, and when they lost again the following night, they were on the edge, a defeat away from the beginning of the offseason.

Throughout the week, his teammates sought to lift his sagging spirits, promised him that they would get him the chance to pitch again. That, of course, would require two straight wins in elimination games and a Game Seven rematch with the Cleveland Indians.

True to their word, the Red Sox delivered a Game Seven. Matsuzaka, making good on his second chance, gave them his best outing of October.

Lasting five innings, he allowed two runs on six hits and critically, left with the Sox in the lead.

He was nearly flawless through the first three innings, allowing just one hit, retiring nine of the first 10 hitters as the Sox provided with him with a run in each of the first three frames.

In the fourth, doubles by Travis Hafner — breaking out of a brutal 0-for-16 skid that included 10 strikeouts — and Ryan Garko accounted for the Indians’ first run, but Matsuzaka got Jhonny Peralta to ground out with Garko in scoring position.

An inning later, Matsuzaka appeared to be the beneficiary of a blown call by second base umpire Brian Gorman, who called Kenny Lofton out at second after attempting to stretch a single into a double.

Two singles and a sacrifice fly followed, accounting for a run, and with runners at the corners and two outs, Matsuzaka was at his own personal crossroads again — 4 2/3 innings, the exact spot where his first two postseason starts had ended.

This time, though, Matsuzaka broke through, getting Asdrubal Cabrera swinging at strike three for the final out in the fifth. It was but one more out than he had gotten in his last two outings, but for the Red Sox it was immense.

As he left the mound, he punched the air for emphasis, and perhaps, relief. His night was done, but he had done his best to make sure the Red Sox season wasn’t.

Even before the game, the Sox had expressed full confidence in Matsuzaka.

“I think Daisuke is very excited about pitching,” said manager Terry Francona, “and I think we look at him and we’re excited for him. I think his teammates legitimately wanted to give him another crack. It honestly means a lot to us to play another game tonight and try to win. But I think Daisuke is taking this kind of personally and wants to do something to help our cause.”

That support was something Matsuzaka earned this season. Unlike Byung-Hyun Kim, another pitching import from the Far East, Matsuzaka made an effort to be part of these Red Sox.

He worked diligently, as Kim had, pushing himself to exhaustion, sometimes in solitude. But he also worked to assimilate himself into the fabric of the clubhouse.

As best he could, given the barriers he faced, he joked with them and fell into the camaraderie of the team over the long season. He wasn’t the uneasy outsider; he was one of them.

Last week in Cleveland, on the afternoon of Game Six, Curt Schilling offered tutorial on improving his fastball command. Evidently, something clicked — last night, Matsuzaka didn’t walk a single batter and was far more economical with his pitch count.

As has been customary in the postseason, the rest of the pitching staff lined up, en masse, to offer encouragement as he left the bullpen following his pregame warmup. From there, the sellout crowd took over.

Perhaps sensing that Matsuzaka could use all the backing he could get, Red Sox fans stood and cheered him wildly as he walked in across the outfield grass on his way to the Red Sox dugout.

Last night, with the club’s season riding on him, he took more to the mound than his assortment of pitches. He also took their faith, their trust, and for the first time this October, he did not let them down.

smcadam@projo.com