In game of import, Matsuzaka falls flat

CLEVELAND – There is little doubt Dice-K’s mysterious gyroball is nothing more than a myth, and maybe so is his reputation as the biggest of big-game pitchers from Japan.

Boston’s Daisuke Matsuzaka, the celebrated import who cost the Red Sox more than $100 million, has much to prove. In the most meaningful start of his U.S. career, Matsuzaka struggled against the Cleveland Indians in Game 3 of the American League Championship Series on Monday.

With his team tied 1-1 in the best-of-7 series, Matsuzaka couldn’t make it out of the fifth inning, allowing four runs, six hits and two walks in 4 2/3 innings at Cleveland’s chilly and boisterous Jacobs Field. The Indians won 4-2 to take a 2-1 series lead.

Matsuzaka hasn’t won a meaningful game since August, including going fewer than five innings in Game 2 of Boston’s three-game Division Series sweep of the Los Angeles Angels, a disappointing performance that dropped him to No. 3 in the rotation against the Indians.

In Japan, his image as a national hero has gone down as his earned run average has gone up.

In the waning days of the regular season, the number of Japanese reporters covering him decreased.

“I approached that game (against the Angels) the same way I did my regular season starts,” he said through a translator before Monday’s game. “But I also know I made mistakes in that start. I hope to learn from it.”

The Red Sox paid $51.1 million for the rights to negotiate with the Seibu Lions for Matsuzaka and shelled out another $52 million to sign him.

He arrived in February for spring training with all the fanfare of a rock star. Scores of Japanese reporters and a dozen TV crews were on hand for his first public appearance.

From that moment, anticipation built for his first start. It came in April against the Kansas City Royals, a stellar 10-strikeout, six-hit performance in a 4-1 win that did nothing to diminish expectations.

After all, he pitched a no-hitter to win Japan’s national high school tournament in 1998 at age 17 and became a legend.

In the start before that he threw more than 200 pitches to win a 17-inning marathon. He played on two Olympic teams and was MVP in the first World Baseball Classic, won by Japan.

In 32 starts as the Red Sox won the A.L. East title, Dice-K was 15-12 with a 4.40 ERA. Yet after the All-Star break he was 5-6 with a 5.19 ERA.

By comparison, his ERA the last eight seasons with the Seibu Lions was 2.13.

I believe Matsuzaka has worn down. The grueling major-league season might have been too much for him. In the major leagues, pitchers make more starts in a season than in Japan.

There’s also all the hype that accompanied him. He’s proven to be a capable starter but certainly not the No. 1 the Red Sox thought he’d be.

In a strange country, not speaking the language, Matsuzaka faced an impossible task.

“Obviously, he’s lost a little bit of his command and lost consistency of his secondary pitches,” said Red Sox general manager Theo Epstein. “Really, his command is his biggest thing.

“In the second half, his pitches started running together. At the beginning of the year, he had six different pitches, a great variety, and a great ability to mix and match. He sort of became a fastball-cutter guy.”

Matsuzaka said he knew from the moment he arrived the transition to the major leagues was going to be uphill.

“I didn’t think everything was going to be great from the start,” he said. “I was well aware of the language barrier before I headed over here, so admittedly it was difficult.”

He added through the translator:

“Almost everything was new to me this year. So every experience I had, I decided early on it was going to be a learning year for me.”

On the plus side, he had 201 strikeouts in 204 2/3 innings.

But was he worth more than $100 million?

“We don’t get here without him,” Epstein said. “And we don’t get where we want to be without him going forward.”

Which says a lot about the burden Dice-K faced Monday night and in the future.