Gaman [我慢]
| Game 95: July 19, 2007 | |||
 White Sox |
4 | W: Javier Vazquez (7-5) H: Ryan Bukvich (2) S: Bobby Jenks (26) |
43-51, 2 game winning streak 12-15-4 series record |
| Red Sox | 2 | L: Daisuke Matsuzaka (11-7) | 56-39, 3 game losing streak 19-9-4 series record |
| Highlights: Perseverance. Endurance. Patience. Self control. Denial of self. Things one must be in a season that spans 162 games. Gaman means all these things. These are the concepts guiding Matsuzaka has he forges into the unexplored depths of a major league season. | |||
Half of the ballparks in the Nippon Professional Baseball league are domes. Daisuke Matsuzaka’s home field had a roof and three of the other teams in his division were also indoors. The 1:56 rain delay may have impacted Matsuzaka’s effectiveness last night, but since his previous two games were also not quality starts it’s difficult to ascribe the weather as the sole reason for his shakiness.
But for the Red Sox offense, four runs should be an easily surmountable deficit. The offense did so in Matsuzaka’s start against the Blue Jays on July 14, a game in which Boston launched three home runs.
Home cooking at Fenway has lacked the special sauce of extra base hits to add the finishing touch to games that should have been victories.
Dustin Pedroia replicated his 3-for-5 showing last night and this time sprinkled one of his singles with runners on for an RBI in the second. Julio Lugo drove in the only other run just before Pedroia’s with a tapper to short for a run-scoring fielder’s choice.
The local nine were just 5-for-16 with runners on with one walk. All the hits were one-baggers.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe is a superlative source for quotes about power:
There are but two roads that lead to an important goal and to the doing of great things: strength and perseverance. Strength is the lot of but a few privileged people; but austere perseverance, harsh and continuous, may be employed by the least of us and rarely fails of its purpose, for its silent power grows irreversibly greater with time.
Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it. Begin it now.
John knew what he was talking about, even way back then.
