OAKLAND, Calif. –- Daisuke Matsuzaka has not recorded a shutout in his major league career with the Boston Red Sox.

The right-hander has made 86 starts for the Sox without putting up a zero. He had the stuff on Monday against the Oakland Athletics and gave it a good bid, but one mistake to the A’s Rajai Davis in the third inning resulted in a solo home run.

That was the only run the efficient Matsuzaka allowed as he helped Boston to a 2-1 victory. He allowed only two hits and threw 89 pitches over 6 2/3 innings before being lifted in favor of Daniel Bard.

“He was tremendous,” said Red Sox manager Terry Francona. “His first-pitch strikes were 19-for-24. He had power to his pitches with the slider and cutter. He made a mistake to Davis, but other than that he was really good.”

It hasn't always been easy for Matsuzaka at the Coliseum, the site of the shortest outing of his career.

On April 14, 2009, he was awful, allowing five runs on five hits in only one inning of work. It was that outing that sent him spiraling out of control on and off the field as he spent the majority of the season on the disabled list with a variety of injuries.

History did not repeat itself Monday night and Matsuzaka had a little more motivation given what happened here a season ago.

“You could say that, but that wasn’t at the forefront of my mind coming into the game tonight,” he said through an interpreter. “More than that, I didn’t want to string two losses together.”

He didn’t, improving to 7-3.

Matsuzaka’s pregame routine has changed a bit of late. He arrived at the ballpark earlier than usual on Monday, played long toss and ran sprints.

“Over the past three starts I’ve made some adjustments to my routine in preparation for the game,” he said, “but I’m not expecting dramatic changes to come from this, but gradual changes over time.”