Panic stations!

Matsuzaka a little wild in penultimate spring tuneup

So Matsuzaka walks a couple of guys and then doesn't talk to the media after his start. With noted Calvinistic, optimism-challenged scribe Dan Shaughnessy guiding their hands, Red Sox Nation slams it's finger on the panic button.

For the love of God. Take it easy folks.

A few weeks ago the Globe posted a good piece about Josh Beckett and his hopes for the season. In it, he described how, as a pitcher, you basically go through peaks and valleys in your 30 something starts. He outlined how he felt that for 20 of those starts you feel normal, those are your bread-and-butter starts. For 4-5 you feel amazing, as if anything you throw is going to be a perfect pitch. For another 5 it is simply a struggle. Nothing you do works and you really have to battle to get any result.

Instead of hypothesising injury or other doomsday scenarios can we not just put Matsuzaka's start into the '4-5 games that are a struggle' category, and admire the fact that he didn't even give up a hit let alone a run?

I'll tell ya, it's going to be one long, long season if this is the level of nit-picking the media dig to after each start.