It appears Boston Red Sox's Daisuke Matsuzaka is on track to return to the majors and pitch against the St. Louis Cardinals on Saturday.
Dice-K, on the DL since May 28 with a strained right rotator cuff, made his first career minor league appearance on Monday, pitching five solid innings for Triple-A Pawtucket. The 27-year-old right-hander worked five innings against the Lehigh Valley IronPigs, allowing two earned runs on three hits, walking one, striking out five and throwing 65 pitches, 47 for strikes.
"There were a few things that I wanted to try out when I was out there," Matsuzaka said through an interpreter. "One of those things was my fastball, and I feel like I was able to achieve that."Matsuzaka threw first-pitch strikes to 11 of the first 13 batters he faced and reached as high as 93 mph on the radar readings shown at Coca-Cola Park. After four hitless innings - and striking out the side in the second - Matsuzaka ran into some trouble in the fifth, allowing three hits and two runs. But he said he was satisfied with the effort.
"The biggest thing was that I was able to pitch without any problems. I don't know exactly what percent, but I'm ready to throw."
The start represented the latest step in the recovery of Matsuzaka, who threw on the side Friday in Cincinnati. Matsuzaka, who is 8-0 with a 2.53 ERA with the Red Sox this season, is unbeaten in his past 14 major league starts dating to last September.
Matsuzaka was expected to head to Philadelphia on Tuesday to join his Red Sox teammates and being preparations for Saturday's big-league return.
He was injured when reaching for an off-line throw by Red Sox first baseman Sean Casey while covering first base May 27 in Seattle. Dice-K came out for warmups to start the following inning but left when he felt discomfort.
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