Well that was fun. As expected, the Rays didn’t roll over. But in the category of unexpected would have to go Daisuke Matsuzaka’s start. He walked the bases loaded in the first, then took a no-hitter into the seventh. This was most definitely NOT one of those frustrating Matsuzaka starts full of walks and full counts and pitching from the stretch.

“He dominated,” said second baseman Dustin Pedroia.

Still, a number of Red Sox marveled at Matsuzaka’s ability to escape trouble, even though he was rarely in any.

“I’ll take Daisuke anytime,” said DH David Ortiz. “He knows how to get out of trouble. How, I don’t know. He’s got so many ways to get a hitter out, it’s unbelievable. He’s got so much movement on his pitches, so many ways to throw strikes, he’s hard to hit. Facing a guy like that, you might think, OK, he’s a little wild, let me take a pitch. Then he throws a curveball backdoor for a strike, and then a changeup, and then he’s front-door 94 (mph) and you say, I’d better swing. That’s what happens.”

Outfielder Jason Bay noted that it takes a few starts to appreciate Matsuzaka.

“If you’ve only seen him one or two times, you think it’s going to come back and bite him,” Bay said of the starter’s penchant for pitching with runners on base. “But after you see him for a while, you figure out that’s what he does. He pitches away from contact and seems to have a knack for getting out of his own jams.”

There was a little tension in the seventh when Carl Crawford broke up the no-no with a single and Cliff Floyd followed with a single of his own to put runners on the corners. But Matsuzaka went pop-up, strikeout, ground out to escape. The Rays put the first two on in the eighth as well, but rookie Justin Masterson got out of that one by forcing Rookie of the Year favorite Evan Longoria to ground into a 6-4-3 double play.

Masterson (San Diego State) and Longoria (Long Beach State) were college rivals who faced off in the Cape League as well. Masterson got the best of Longoria by keeping a diet of sinkers and sliders down until Longoria chopped one to Jed Lowrie, whose fifth inning sacrifice fly provided the margin of victory.

The Sox now have regained homefield advantage, but this one is far from over. The Rays are too resilient for that.

“These are the two best teams in the American League,” Pedroia said. “Every game is going to be a grind.”

Don’t look now, but Sox starter Daisuke Matsuzaka hasn’t allowed a hit through four, and he’s already got seven strikeouts. The postseason record, of course, is 17 for Cardinals starter Bob Gibson vs. the Detroit Tigers in the 1968 World Series. He won that game with a five-hit shutout. Gibson, for what it’s worth, had eight strikeouts through four that day. Matsuzaka’s got a long way to go, but he’s clearly in a groove.

Daisuke Matsuzaka just got Cliff Floyd to ground to second to escape a bases loaded jam in the first. It shouldn’t come as any surprise. One of the reasons Matsuzaka’s ERA was so low this year despite his walk totals being so high was his success with the bases full. Floyd’s groundouts dropped opposing hitters to 0 for 15 against Matsuzaka in such situations.

Also in the “not surprising” category, Matsuzaka had just walked the bases loaded. Although believe it or not, he only walked the bases full one other time this year — on July 2 against the Rays, he did so in the first in a 7-6 loss. Matsuzaka took a no-decision.

Red Sox manager Terry Francona just finished his pregame meeting with the local media, and there’s not much to report. Francona praised Mark Kotsay’s defense at first, said Mike Lowell realized his hip was just too painful to play through, and spent a decent amount of time addressing the adjustments to Josh Beckett’s between-starts regimen.

Here are the lineups:

RED SOX

1. CF Jacoby Ellsbury
2. 2B Dustin Pedroia
3. DH David Ortiz
4. 3B Kevin Youkilis
5. RF J.D. Drew
6. LF Jason Bay
7. 1B Mark Kotsay
8. SS Jed Lowrie
9. C Jason Varitek

RAYS

1. 2B Akinori Iwamura
2. CF B.J. Upton
3. 1B Carlos Pena
4. 3B Evan Longoria
5. LF Carl Crawford
6. DH Cliff Floyd
7. C Dioner Navarro
8. RF Gabe Gross
9. SS Jason Bartlett

Red Sox manager Terry Francona just announced the final roster for the ALCS. The Sox will carry 11 pitchers, with Mike Timlin being the roster addition. They’ll also go with three catchers again, meaning that David Ross beat out infielder Gil Velazquez for the final spot.

“I think we felt like in a potential seven game series you need to have the extra pitcher,” Francona said. “Mike’s very deserving. He’s been doing this for a long time. I don’t know when he’ll pitch or how he’ll be used, but I know there was a comfort level putting him on the roster.”