KANSAS CITY, Mo. - As far as first impressions go, it was the kind that left an indelible mark.

At least until next Wednesday.

But after all of the events of the offseason, after the Red Sox committed $103.11 million to obtain Daisuke Matsuzaka in one of the most publicized player pursuits in modern baseball history, the simple truth is that Matsuzaka’s first game with the Boston Red Sox could not be anything but.

No matter whom it was against.

“From the get-go, he was sharp with all of his pitches and he had to be,’’ Red Sox manager Terry Francona said after Matsuzaka struck out 10 in seven innings of his team’s 4-1 win over the Kansas City Royals. “FOn a day when it was hard to score, the way the conditions were, we got one (run) early and he made it stand up. He was terrific.’’

On what really, do we have to truly grade Matsuzaka at this point? What other options are there? The baseball scheduling gods being who they are, the Red Sox opened their 2007 season against a Kansas City Royals team that went 62-100 last season, finishing with a worse record than any team in baseball but the Tampa Bay Devil Rays. That’s what the schedule gave us, so that’s what we have to take.

That said, Matsuzaka was nothing short of brilliant, confounding the overmatched Royals with a succession of fastballs, sliders, curveballs, cut fastballs split-fingered fastballs and whatever other kind of fastball exists. Upon acquiring Matsuzaka with a winning bid of $51.11 million last November, the Red Sox indicated that Matsuzaka had a unique arsenal of pitches. Nobody ever mentioned that the man happens to throw, well, everything.

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Do not misunderstand. Lots of pitchers claim to have a wide repertoire of pitches, right up until it comes time to pitch in a game. Then the pitches go the way of the FlyMo. Pitchers love to experiment during spring training in hopes of adding weapons to their arsenal, but when push comes to shove during the regular season, they immediately regress to their former selves.

Stress can do that to you.

It can break you down.

Not Matsuzaka. Not Thursday, when he threw 74 of his 108 pitches for strikes. Not when he struck out five during one stretch covering seven Royals hitters, none of whom were named Brett, McRae, Wilson or Mays Aikens. For that matter, there wasn’t anyone named Mike Sweeney, either, because manager Buddy Bell elected to give him the day off.

Charlie Riedel / AP Boston Red Sox starter Diasuke Matsuzaka gets his ears warmed by a teammate after he was removed from Thursday's game.

But the big leagues are the big leagues, no matter what, and Matsuzaka was the best big leaguer on the field at Kauffman Stadium despite never having been on a big league diamond before.

Still, it was more than that.

It was the way he won.

“No surprises. He was as advertised,” said Red Sox right-hander Curt Schilling, he of the 207 career wins and 3,020 career strikeouts. “He's going to be great because that's part of his makeup. He thrives with that train of thought, that mentality. When the game tightens and the situation gets game-changing, you see him elevate his game. He gets more velocity on the baseball, he throws sharper pitches, and that's what great pitchers do.''

Which is not to say that Matsuzaka is a great pitcher.

At least not here.

At least not yet.

In Japan? That is a different story, at least based on the manner in which Matsuzaka is being followed. It’s as if he were the offspring of Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie. When Matsuzaka pitched his first spring game, for instance — a game against Boston College, for goodness sake — an estimated 14 million watched the broadcast in Japan, live at 8 a.m. Thursday’s game against Kansas City was being broadcast at the timely Tokyo hour of 3 a.m., yet there were an estimated 135 members of the Japanese media covering the game as if an entire nation was watching from overseas.

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