Wow, aside from the major news outlets there's been surprisingly little written about last night's game - even dirt dogs hasn't been updated yet. Having been there I figured I'd give you all a first hand account of the game (I'll try to post the pics I took sometime later on in the day).
The atmosphere was electric, everyone there knew they were about to witness history. The park had a genuinely international feel with so many Japanese fans in attendance, all holding their signs and counting Dice's strikeouts. There was even one kid who had on the jersey from his team in Japan.
We were sitting about 10 rows back from Pesky's Pole and out trotted Dice-K for his stretching routine and warm-up tosses. The fans started to gather around us to take pictures and everyone was standing and cheering his name. Eventually he moved to the pen for a few more tosses and then shortly after the team took the field and he headed out to the mound.
The first pitch to Ichiro was insanity, I've never seen so many flashbulbs going off at the same time. He ended up getting the out and everyone stayed on their feet for the second batter and then finally settled into their seats with the third. Then the Sox got to bat for all of 3 minutes before heading back out on defense.
I won't go into all the minute details of the game, but it suffices to say that Matsuzaka had an OK game but wasn't as on point at Hernandez was. The Sox could barely keep up with his fastball, not to mention his slider and curve. Everything they hit looked weak with the exception of a fly out to left field. Even JD Drew's hit was nothing special, aside from continuing his hitting streak. As the game wore on the crowd become noticeably disappointed, as we were all hoping for a Dice-K win in his first start, but as it became clear that wasn't going to happen people started to root for a no-hitter by Hernandez. It seemed like the loss would be OK with everyone if we got to see a no-hitter in person, even if it was thrown by the opposing team. As it turned out even that wasn't meant to be, but I guess that's why baseball is so much fun, you never know what's going to happen... And now, after pitching two scoreless games, Hernandez is the one being called a phenom. I wonder how Dice is feeling today...
All that aside, here's hoping we can get today's game in and get Wakefield some runs!!
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