Who was that Man?

He pitched into the seventh inning and only threw 93 pitches, and with confidence. When he got two strikes on a batter, he threw strike three, instead of nibbling to a 3-2 count. He worked fast ( instead of a close to four hour game, it was over in less that three). No, it wasn’t Roy Halladay or Mark Buerhle, it was our very own Dice-K!

I must admit I was not looking forward to last night. Who was? I was interested in what I would see from Matsuzaka, but I expected more of the same. A ton of base runners, a lot of time furiously rubbing the ball, and Angels flying around the bases.

Instead, it was a turnaround. Maybe Dice-K is finally listening to the Sox pitching coaches and making some concessions in his methods to the American game. If he can show more of the same in the three or four starts he will get before the season ends he could help the Sox in the postseason should they get there.

And maybe even for seasons to come.

It’s always interesting to watch the Anaheim Angels not of Los Angeles play their own brand of baseball. We haven’t seen them since the Red Sox and Angels played six times in the first five weeks of the seasonwhen the Angels won four of the six games on the West Coast. This is the first and only visit the Angels will make to Fenway.

Unless….

If things continue the way they are, the Sox and Angels will meet in the ALDS again in what has become as regular an event as the leaves changing color. The teams met in 2004, 2007 and 2008 with the Sox holding a 9-1 record over those three years.

So, what has gone on with the Angels since we last saw them? Well, they were 18-15 on May 14, in second place. Since then they have gone 68-43, 25 games over .500, losing only 16 games in all of June and July.

The team is led, as always, by Chone Figgins, who is hitting .303 with 41 steals. But they have surrounded him with some good young hitters who have come into their own like Kendry Morales, Erick Aybar and Juan Rivera. Plus veterans Vlad Guerrero, Bobby Abreu and Torii Hunter are all around .300, which makes Matsuzaka’s performance all the more impressive.

Pitching-wise, Jered Weaver is 15-5, while Joe Saunders and John Lackey have 23 wins between them. The Angels recently acquired Scott Kazmir, who has a 1.86 ERA in three starts. Brian Fuentes has 41 saves, replacing K-Rod at the end of the bullpen.

As we know, the Angels do lots of things well.

Tampa Bay steals a lot of bases, the Yankees hit home runs in bunches, the White Sox like to hit-and-run. The Angels do all of the above. They lead the league in hitting, have 136 steals and 153 home runs. They are second in team defense, fourth in sacrifice bunts and first in sacrifice flies. They are second in hits. If they get a runner to second with nobody out, that runner scores 48% of the time.

All in all, a pretty impressive set of numbers, offensively. But the Angels are only one games better than the Red Sox. Why? Because, for all their woes and disorganization, the Sox have a better team ERA (4.44 to 4.67) and a better bullpen.

Last night’s game was a good performance, and, with Texas losing, the Wild Card lead is up to 5 ½ games. With a long road trip looming, the last of the season, it’s a good time for the Sox to put some space between them and the Rangers and also make a statement to their likely first-round opponents.