Welcome to 201k.com - A Commonwealth Perspective.

Red Sox pitching coach John Farrell thinks he knows why Daisuke Matsuzaka is struggling:

"When he's in a big inning, he has a tendency to rely on his fastball and generate as much power as possible and, with that, he's sacrificing location.

"He's somewhat gone away from his offspeed pitch and hitters have had a chance to look in hard and not have to guard too much against anything soft."

We beg to differ. What's going on with Dice-K has nothing to do with his pitching; it has to do with the umpiring.

As we've said before, it's clear to anyone watching Dice-K pitch-by-pitch that the umps are giving him the business. Or, to be more specific, they're not giving him the corners. This is how he's getting into 2-0 and 3-0 jams -- because he's not getting any called strikes on the corners. So he has to come right over the plate, and hitters are laying in wait to tee off on him.

Think back -- or better: go back and look -- and see how many at-bats during which he's gotten into holes with hitters have had one or more very close call with a pitch on the corners. The answer is almost every time.

The truth is that if more of these calls had gone his way instead of against him, he'd be 15-9.