Fenway Park survived the invasion of the media for Daisuke Mutsuzaka's first home start last night. The Sox issued over 350 media credentials for the game yesterday.

Dice-K didn't live up to the hype, but it was far from the disastrous outing that you would have believed he had if you listened to the yahoos that were interviewed by the local news stations after the game. 7 innings, 3 runs is a pretty respectable outing for any pitcher. If he does that every time out, he'll win a lot more than he'll lose.

Unfortunately, the Sox offense ran into a buzzsaw by the name of Felix Hernandez last night. The Mariner's 21-year-old franchise pitcher took a no-hitter into the 8th last night until J.D. Drew broke it up with a leadoff single, the Sox only hit.

This kid is very impressive. He has three nasty pitches and can throw them all for stikes. I first became aware of him when we were in Seattle a couple of summers ago. We went to see an Everett Aquasox game (the Mariners short-season Class A affiliate). Hernandez had pitched for the Aquasox the previous season and the team's program book had several articles about him. I saw him pitch a couple of times on TV last year, and he had a pretty mediocre season (12-14, 4.52 ERA). He lost 20 pounds over the winter and getting in shape has seemed to do him a lot of good - his first two starts have been shutout wins.

So, keep an eye on this guy. He could be a big star for a very long time.