"Daisuke Matsuzaka will continue his charitable initiative this season to benefit the Red Sox Foundation, the team's official charity.

The right-handed pitcher will donate $500 to the Red Sox Foundation for every strikeout he records during the regular season, extending the "Dice-K's Strikeouts for Kids" initiative he launched last year.

His 133 strikeouts in 2010 resulted in a $66,500 contribution in the program's first year, which serves needy children in New England.

This season, a portion of the donation made by Matsuzaka, a native of Tokyo, Japan, will benefit relief efforts in his home country to help the victims of the earthquake and subsequent tsunami that struck on March 11."