According to Alex Speier of Boston's WEEI, Daisuke Matsuzaka "will be skipped in his next turn through the rotation."
There is some injury concern — he'll be examined by a team doctor — but this is mostly a performance-based decision. Dice-K allowed six runs in four innings during his last outing and is now 1-5 with an 8.23 ERA and 2.20 WHIP on the season. If the Red Sox decide to throw him into the bullpen for the remainder of the '09 campaign, or find some sort of physical issue, Speier suggests they might pull Brad Penny off the trading block.
Even with John Smoltz set to join the club Thursday, it would appear Boston's rotational depth just took a small hit.
