This Would Be Why They Play the Games

If I were a superstitious man, I would say that the probability of success in Dice-K's most recent starts is inversely proportional to whether or not I start him in my fantasy baseball line up. I put him in against the Yankees, and he gave up seven earned runs on nine hits in four and 2/3rds innings. I benched him against Philly - logically, I thought, given the team - and he came close to throwing a no hitter. I put him in against Kansas City, a team so wretched that Joe Posnanski has taken to titling his Royals updates "Diary of a Losing Team"...and he gives up three runs on a career-high-tying eight walks.

I might therefore be forgiven for thinking that last night's rather humiliating loss was somehow my fault, but fortunately Matsuzaka gave the quote to set me straight:

“'My lower body wasn’t cooperating today, so I had to rely too much on my upper body...Between these two starts I had noticed a little bit of soreness there, but I didn’t have any problems with my side session. It wasn’t at the forefront of my mind going into my start tonight.

Also, I knew that during my pregame warmup in the bullpen tonight, my pitches weren’t great but I couldn’t make the necessary adjustments.'

"The right-hander added that 'it’s been a long time since my body didn’t cooperate like this, and like I said at the beginning I had to rely a lot on my upper body. I think the velocity was there, but there was no movement and there was no bite to my pitches, not to mention any command.'”

Well, that might explain it, then. From my understanding of body mechanics, acquired mainly through playing baseball badly as a child and bowling with mixed success as an adult, the lower body has far more impact on the eventual placement of the ball than it logically should. If Dice-K's lower body wasn't "cooperating," it's not particularly surprising he was handing out walks like candy at Bob's Discount Furniture. I just wish he'd thought to have said something before making the start.