"So this is how it ends with Daisuke Matsuzaka, first on the other side of the world, and then the other side of the country, deciding his future while the Red Sox sit in the dark.

The communication breakdowns that defined Matsuzaka's five seasons here as much as anything he did on the field fittingly carried through his presumptive final moments in a Red Sox uniform.

The sides met yesterday to discuss his elbow, but really, what was there to decide? Matsuzaka already knew he wanted to have Tommy John tendon transplant surgery and if we've learned anything since he arrived in 2007, it's that he can be pretty stubborn when it comes to getting his way.

That he's probably right in this case — why rest and rehab a partial tear of the ulnar collateral ligament when you're just delaying the inevitable? — is beside the point.

What's appropriate is that right to the very end, Daisuke and the Sox never quite got on the same page."