"By the close of business late Sunday night at Fenway Park, Red Sox fans could rightly believe that the dark days of early April were over, that order had been restored in the American League East.

Josh Beckett had just submitted a brilliant performance to lead the Sox to a convincing, we're-not-dead victory over the Yankees. It was their second win in three tries against their hated rivals from New York, and it allowed Sox fans to dismiss their team's season-opening, six-game losing streak as some kind of statistical fluke.

And then Daisuke Matsuzaka went out to the mound last night at Fenway Park.

So much for all that optimism.

Unlike most outings, in which he is merely dull and plodding, transforming a fan's trip to the ballpark into a four-hour wait in line at the Registry of Motor Vehicles, Matsuzaka was so horrifically, mind-numbingly bad in the Sox' 16-5 loss to the Tampa Bay Rays last night at Fenway that his outing actually brought a measure of excitement to the old ballyard.

And here's why: After Matsuzaka was torched for six runs in the second inning, including a home run by New Hampshire's Sam Fuld, and allowed the first two batters he faced to reach in the third, Fenway Park exploded with wild cheers and applause when Sox manager Terry Francona finally came out of the dugout to make a pitching change.

When Matsuzaka walked the Green Mile to the dugout, he was literally booed off the field. It was worse than the booing rained upon visiting villain Johnny Damon, who in the first inning hit the first pitch he saw from Matsuzaka for a home run. In fact, it's quite possible that no Red Sox player in recent memory was booed as badly as Matsuzaka was last night.

To be sure, there was plenty of blame to go around. As has often been the case this season, the Red Sox were so bad last night that their performance bordered on consumer fraud. But it was Matsuzaka who took most of the heat, partly because it's always easy to razz a failed starting pitcher as he exits the game, but also because, well, let's face it, Sox fans are sick and tired of this guy's act."