Daisuke Matsuzaka

1. Flyers goalie Michael Leighton 2. Red Sox pitcher Daisuke Matsuzaka 3. The Boston Celtics in a 23-point win

Friday at 7:10 p.m. LHP Jamie Moyer (6-5, 3.98 ERA) vs. Boston RHP John Lackey (6-3, 4.72). Saturday at 4:10 p.m. RHP Joe Blanton (1-4, 6.07) vs. Boston RHP Daisuke Matsuzaka (5-2, 4.59). Sunday at 1:35 p.m. LHP Cole Hamels (5-5, 3.98) vs. Boston RHP Tim Wakefield (2-4, 5.48).

The Los Angeles Dodgers put righthander Carlos Monasterios on the 15-day disabled list with injuries to fingers on his pitching hand. Vicente Padilla was activated before starting Saturday's game against the Red Sox. Monasterios, a former Phillies prospect, is 3-2 with a 5.40 ERA in six starts. Manager Joe Torre said he had blisters on his middle and index fingers. Marlins. Shortstop Hanley Ramirez left Saturday's game against Tampa Bay with a tight right hamstring. Red Sox. Rightfielder J.D. Drew was out of the lineup Saturday against the Dodgers but doesn't think his right hamstring injury will sideline him for long.

Los Angeles Dodger Nomar Garciaparra homered off St. Louis' Joel Pineiro in the second inning of a game in Vero Beach, Fla., before leaving when he was hit by a pitch on the wrist in the fourth. X-rays of Garciaparra's right wrist were negative. Andruw Jones took advantage of windy conditions to hit his first homer for the Dodgers in the 6-4 win. The 10-time Gold Glover signed a $36.2 million, two-year contract in the off-season. Red Sox. Daisuke Matsuzaka probably won't fly to Tokyo with his teammates because his wife's due date is March 19, the date of the flight, but the team hopes he can join them in his native country.

Sam Fuld went 4-for-6 with a two-run homer, drove in three runs and fell a single shy of the cycle to help the visiting Tampa Bay Rays bust out of an early-season slump with a 16-5 win over the Boston Red Sox last night. Johnny Damon had three hits, including a solo homer, and three RBI against his old team, which now is 2-8. Daisuke Matsuzaka was knocked out in the third inning after allowing pounded for seven runs. "I wanted to go aggressive to pound the strike zone, however my balls came into the middle of the zone and I didn't have enough life [on pitches]

1 Red Sox righthander Daisuke Matsuzaka. The Red Sox like their chances when Josh Beckett is on the mound, even though the Rockies knocked him around (six runs on 10 hits, including two home runs in five innings) during interleague play at Fenway Park on June 14. And they'll like their chances when Curt Schilling has the ball; his 10-2 postseason record speaks for itself. The crucial Game 3 matchup, expected to be Matsuzaka against Josh Fogg, could be pivotal. Especially since it could come up twice.

No-no always on his mind Unlike many pitchers, New York's Phil Hughes said he absolutely was aware he was working on a no-hitter on Wednesday. (All pitchers are aware of no-hitters, they just won't admit it.) "I'd be lying if I said I wasn't," the Yankees righthander said. "Obviously I knew I hadn't given up a hit. To have it end that way is kind of a bummer, but it's the game and I'm happy to get out of here with a win. " Hughes pitched seven innings of no-hit ball against the Oakland A's in a 3-1 victory Wednesday.

Baseball commissioner Bud Selig says he will step down in 3 years when his contract ends, content that the sport is in good health, Reuters reported. "I plan to retire," Selig, the former Milwaukee Brewers owner, said yesterday. "Other than Kenesaw Mountain Landis, I think I would be the longest-serving commissioner," added Selig, who became "interim commissioner" in 1992 and took the job permanently 6 years later. "My contract runs for the next 3-plus years. I'll be 75 years of age and I want to teach and write a book and do some other things," he said.

The $51.11 million the Red Sox offered for the rights to Daisuke Matsuzaka was enough to get the Japanese ace across the Pacific Ocean. It took that much and a little more to fly him the rest of the way to Boston. Bridging the economic gap in the most expensive cultural exchange in baseball history, the Red Sox reached a preliminary agreement yesterday with Matsuzaka on a $52 million, 6-year contract. With $103.11 million on the table, the two sides flew back to Boston on Red Sox owner John Henry's private plane.

BOSTON - In an effort to give his offense a boost, Boston Red Sox manager Terry Francona moved rightfielder J.D. Drew to the leadoff spot last night in Game 4 of the American League Championship Series against the Tampa Bay Rays at Fenway Park. Drew replaced slumping centerfielder Jacoby Ellsbury, who wasn't in last night's starting lineup. Ellsbury, 0 for 14 in the first three ALCS games, was replaced in center field by Coco Crisp, who batted seventh. "Jake's scuffling a little bit," Francona said before the game.

PITTSBURGH - John Kruk recently had a thought about streamlining the season. "Can we just end this quick and put the Phillies and the Red Sox in the World Series and get this thing over with so we can have a nice summer vacation?" the ESPN analyst, and former Phillies first baseman, asked facetiously. Doesn't work that way. Still, that won't prevent some from looking at the three-game series that begins tonight at Citizens Bank Park as a possible preview of the Fall Classic. There are plenty of mountains to climb, rivers to cross and ambushes to avoid for both teams between now and then.

The $103 million investment the Boston Red Sox made in Daisuke Matsuzaka took another hit yesterday when manager Terry Francona said the righthander probably will need elbow surgery. The team transferred Matsuzaka from the 15-day to the 60-day disabled list amid reports he has decided to have reconstructive surgery that could sideline him for at least 12 months. "It's looking more and more that he's going to need to have the surgery," Francona said before last night's game against the Oakland A's. "He is very driven to come back and help us next year.

Alexei Ramirez tied his career high with four hits, and Philip Humber stymied Boston for seven innings last night to lead the visiting Chicago White Sox to a 10-7 victory over the Red Sox. It was Chicago's sixth straight win at Fenway Park, its longest streak there since the "Go Go" Sox era of 1958-59. Humber (4-3) scattered six hits in the first seven innings before giving up three more in the eighth as Boston cut the deficit to 10-5. In all, Humber was charged with four runs while walking one and striking out five in 7 innings - the first time in seven starts he has allowed more than three runs.

Sam Fuld went 4-for-6 with a two-run homer, drove in three runs and fell a single shy of the cycle to help the visiting Tampa Bay Rays bust out of an early-season slump with a 16-5 win over the Boston Red Sox last night. Johnny Damon had three hits, including a solo homer, and three RBI against his old team, which now is 2-8. Daisuke Matsuzaka was knocked out in the third inning after allowing pounded for seven runs. "I wanted to go aggressive to pound the strike zone, however my balls came into the middle of the zone and I didn't have enough life [on pitches]

The Los Angeles Dodgers put righthander Carlos Monasterios on the 15-day disabled list with injuries to fingers on his pitching hand. Vicente Padilla was activated before starting Saturday's game against the Red Sox. Monasterios, a former Phillies prospect, is 3-2 with a 5.40 ERA in six starts. Manager Joe Torre said he had blisters on his middle and index fingers. Marlins. Shortstop Hanley Ramirez left Saturday's game against Tampa Bay with a tight right hamstring. Red Sox. Rightfielder J.D. Drew was out of the lineup Saturday against the Dodgers but doesn't think his right hamstring injury will sideline him for long.

Friday at 7:10 p.m. LHP Jamie Moyer (6-5, 3.98 ERA) vs. Boston RHP John Lackey (6-3, 4.72). Saturday at 4:10 p.m. RHP Joe Blanton (1-4, 6.07) vs. Boston RHP Daisuke Matsuzaka (5-2, 4.59). Sunday at 1:35 p.m. LHP Cole Hamels (5-5, 3.98) vs. Boston RHP Tim Wakefield (2-4, 5.48).

1. Flyers goalie Michael Leighton 2. Red Sox pitcher Daisuke Matsuzaka 3. The Boston Celtics in a 23-point win

Outside on Tuesday afternoon, a cold, pelting rain provided depressing accompaniment to a series of personnel plagues that even by Red Sox standards seemed biblical in scope. "Right now," conceded manager Terry Francona, the team's bald, bespectacled Job, "we're being tested a lot. " Sixteen hours earlier, two ninth-inning home runs off closer Jonathan Papelbon had turned a gutsy comeback into Boston's eighth straight loss at new Yankee Stadium, fast becoming this team's personal ring of hell.

NEW YORK - Outside on Tuesday afternoon, a cold, pelting rain provided depressing accompaniment to a series of personnel plagues that even by Red Sox standards seemed biblical in scope. "Right now," conceded manager Terry Francona, the team's bald, bespectacled Job, "we're being tested a lot. " Sixteen hours earlier, two ninth-inning home runs off closer Jonathan Papelbon had turned a gutsy comeback into Boston's eighth straight loss at new Yankee Stadium, fast becoming this team's personal ring of hell.

NEW YORK - Outside the Red Sox clubhouse, the weather was dark and foreboding. Which, come to think of it, pretty much reflected the atmosphere inside the room as well. Veteran third baseman Mike Lowell sat at his locker and talked calmly but openly about his lack of playing time. "It's painfully evident I don't really have a role on the team . . . I think sometimes you feel like the team would be better off if you're not on it . . . There are a lot of things we've got to fix . . . Have I given [asking to be released]