Boston’s Daisuke Matsuzaka continued his masterful pitching away from Fenway Park, and J.D. Drew’s first inning homer helped the Red Sox beat the Seattle Mariners 4-2 on Tuesday night.
After dropping five straight on the road, the Red Sox seem to have found a remedy against the lowly Mariners, who fell a season-worst 24 games under .500 with their fourth-straight loss.
Matsuzaka only made Seattle’s anemic offense look even more hapless.
Dice-K (11-1) held Seattle to just five hits and shut out Seattle into the eighth, improving to 5-0 with a 2.20 ERA in eight starts away from home.
Matsuzaka saw his scoreless innings streak end at 25 when countryman Ichiro Suzuki lined an RBI double over center fielder Coco Crisp with one out in the bottom of the eighth. It was the first run allowed by Matsuzaka since the first inning against Tampa Bay on July 2 when Evan Longoria hit a two-out RBI single. Matsuzaka had not allowed an earned run in his previous two starts.
Jose Lopez followed with an RBI single to score Suzuki and knock out Matsuzaka, who walked three and struck out six. Hideki Okajima got the final two outs of the eighth and Jonathan Papelbon pitched the ninth for his 30 save in 34 chances.
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