Berthiaume-Fail

On Baseball Tonight, this past Saturday evening, Steve Berthiaume, in response to the news that Daisuke Matsuzaka would be returning to the Red Sox rotation, declared that "Daisuke STINKS!"

"He stinks," he even repeated.

"The minor league numbers just aren't there," he elaborated.

"Probably allowed 5 ER and 17 walks," he overstated.

And then Daisuke took the mound on that fateful Tuesday evening and shutdown the Red Sox' eventual playoff opponent in the 2009 AL Divisional Series. Official line from last night's game:

6 IP
0 ER
3 Hits
3 BB
5 K

Pretty stinky, eh Stevie?

And of course, it's only one start. He could always revert to, oh say, last year's numbers:

5 2/3 IP
2 ER
4.5 Hits
3 BB
5 k

To be fair, this would actually be a step back for Daisuke-san, so maybe you are onto something, Steve-o. Or maybe you should just keep a lid on it. Not to step on ESPN-Fail's toesies or anything, but this little outburst seemed not only unwarranted, but downright erratic and maybe a little personal, as well (What's the matter, Bert? Guy owe you money, or something?). Of course this, what shall we call it, poor choice of words was sputtered at the end of the show, during valuable, awkward "ad lib" time, and it was late on a Saturday night in the presence of the "All-Star" crew. That being said, do better next time, Stevesie. Otherwise, I know a few Yakuza who don't believe that a blog post is a sufficient enough rebuke for such flagrant disrespect.

Ja-ne for now.