Matsuzaka to be skipped, physically examined

Red Sox manager Terry Francona announced on Saturday that starter Daisuke Matsuzaka would be skipped in the rotation following his four-inning, six-run struggle on Friday night. Matsuzaka has yet to throw a quality start this year, and is 1-5 with an 8.23 ERA this year. Francona and pitching coach John Farrell met with Matsuzaka before announcing the decision.

“What we talked about and met with and decided was that, going forward next week, is that we’re not going to start Daisuke,” Francona said. “I do think he’s searching and it’s been hard for him.

“When he got here today we called him in to talk about that. I think it became apparent, mutually… that we have to get him looked at physically,” Francona continued.

With the return of John Smoltz for Thursday’s game – a contest that would in which Matsuzaka would have pitched – the Red Sox will be able to remain otherwise on schedule with a five-man rotation until Matsuzaka returns.

Presumably, his struggles (and, if the team finds a physical issue, potential injury) would impact the Sox’ willingness to trade right-hander Brad Penny (or any other pitcher who might have represented a potential “surplus”).

Matsuzaka will be examined by team physicial Dr. Thomas Gill and the team’s trainers to determine if a medical issue is reponsible for his struggles.

“So now it’s Saturday afternoon and that process will get started, hopefully quickly,” Francona added. “He will get looked at by Dr. Tom Gill and trainers. You’re talking about potential MRIs, things like that, that may not be done at a quarter to four on a Saturday when we just got done with our meeting. But that all will be coming soon hopefully and we will try to get better answers.”

There has not been a decision at this point about whether a trip to the disabled list might be in the offing, but Francona did say that the team would proceed deliberately and try to operate with sound judgment in order to figure out the best course with the pitcher, who admitted on Friday that he has never before experienced such a sustained struggle in his decorated career.

Francona admitted Saturday that he and Farrell met late Friday to discuss the situation and how best to move forward before meeting with Matsuzaka on Saturday.

“Some of those things I don’t even feel like I want to share,” Francona said of his meeting with Matsuzaka. “It was a very honest, good meeting and very appreciated from his point. We need to get him looked at physically. It all started with the WBC and him not having a, from his own words, a consistent base.”

Francona still believes that Matsuzaka could still be feeling the effects of participating in the World Baseball Class for his native Japan.

“We’ve been fighting that all year and continue to,” Francona said. “Rather than just take a guy out of the rotation, we want to fix it. Again, it became very obvious when we talked to him that we need to look at some things physically.

“It has to be a little longer meeting because we’re doing a couple different languages. You want to make sure the point gets taken. Sometimes the literal maybe a little bit different than my Western Pennsylvania (dialect). It’s a little different so we want to take the time to make sure everyone understood and that part of it will actually continue. Part of what we’re trying to do here is make it better. We’re always evaluating, too, but the idea is to make this better.”

Alex Speier contributed to this report.