Sox Walk Their Way To 3-0 Loss To Cubs

Two franchises steeped in tradition, with the two oldest ballparks in the majors, and some recent history as well, met at Chicago's Wrigley Field on Friday afternoon. Daisuke Matsuzaka, making his 2nd start since coming back from Tommy John surgery, ran into some early control problems that led to a pair of Chicago runs in the bottom of the first.

Matsuzaka gave up 1 hit, walked 3 and threw 28 pitches in the 1st as the Cubs scored a pair to take an early 2-0 lead that was really never challenged. The Cubs added another run in the bottom of the 2nd on a triple by the pitcher Ryan Dempster and an RBI single by David DeJesus.

Aside from the early wildness, through, Dice-K pitched pretty well - allowing only 4 hits over 6 innings. He did't walk anyone after the 1st inning and struck out 3.

Matsuzaka got very little help from the offense which managed only 5 hits on the afternoon. Scott Podsednik had two of them.



Former Red Sox GM Theo Epstein spent some time talking with various Boston players during batting practice prior to the game.