Matsuzaka-Ichiro showdown proves anticlimactic

	Some Tokyo commuters stopped by a department store to catch the game on the way to work ... Brett Bull
	While others just watched it on their cell phones. Brett Bull
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By Brett Bull, Special to SI.com

TOKYO -- The last time two heroes from Japan clashed in a much-anticipated head-to-head match-up in the major leagues, Hideo Nomo plunked Ichiro Suzuki in the back. The Seattle Mariners right-fielder fell to his knees in pain, and Tokyo gasped.

Wednesday's battle, six years later, pitted Ichiro against rookie Daisuke Matsuzaka, who was making his second start of the season for the Boston Red Sox. The game once again left Japan's capital speechless, but for a different reason: Mariners starting pitcher Felix Hernandez completely dominated, stealing the show with a one-hit shutout.

Hernandez took a no-hitter into the eighth inning before allowing a single to right-fielder J.D. Drew, and the brawny right-hander captured a 3-0 victory. The stellar performance undercut the playoff-like atmosphere that Japan had been anticipating ever since the former ace of the Pacific League's Seibu Lions signed with Boston in the off-season.

"It is a shame," said Yoshiyuki Suzuki, a restaurant employee sporting a black Los Angeles Dodgers cap inside the Bic Camera outlet in Tokyo's Yurakucho district, "but Hernandez was a true ace today."

As a film crew from broadcaster Fuji Television sought comments from the dozen or so customers standing in front of the electronics store's aisles of HDTVs showing the game live from Fenway Park, Matsuzaka had already departed and Hernandez was cruising through the ninth inning.

"Honestly, it was not so surprising," added the 54-year-old Suzuki, who admitted that he favors Ichiro over Matsuzaka. "Last year I heard Ichiro say that Hernandez was a great pitcher. So I knew today would be tough."

The showdown with Ichiro was hyped across nearly every sports tabloid throughout the week. But with Tokyo's workday just getting underway by the first pitch (8:05 a.m. on Thursday), the metropolis was generally subdued. Select commuters within crowded train cars could be seen peering into specially equipped mobile phones to view a digital broadcast of the game. But certainly by mid-morning, by which time Matsuzaka had hit the showers, down 3-0 in the seventh, it was business as usual in the city, as it was for Matsuzaka in shutting down Ichiro; he failed to reach base in three at-bats against his countryman.

Matsuzaka, for whom the Red Sox paid $51.1 million for the negotiating rights and an additional $52 million to sign him to a six-year contract, had held Ichiro to a meager .235 batting average (8-for-34, with one home run) in the Pacific League in 1999 and 2000.

Instead, it was fellow countryman Kenji Johjima who proved to be one of the Mariners' top offensive producers. The often overlooked catcher, who batted a very respectable .271 (32-for-118, with 5 home runs) against the Boston starter during the seven years the two matched up in the Pacific League, ripped a Matsuzaka slider into the left-field corner to spark a second-inning rally that gave the Mariners a 1-0 lead. In the sixth, he drilled another Matsuzaka pitch into nearly the same spot for his second two-bagger of the night.

Matsuzaka's first start last week was much more favorable. The 26-year-old sparkled against Kansas City, striking out 10 Royals over 7 innings en route to a 4-1 Boston victory. In the afternoon following the game, which began in the early hours of the morning Tokyo-time, special editions of the Nikkan Sports daily were distributed outside train stations around Tokyo. "10-Strikeout Victory!! Matsuzaka!!!" the headline in bold announced above a blow-up photo of Matsuzaka completing his delivery.