A small swarm of Japanese media came to Coca-Cola Field on Tuesday night to chronicle the Triple-A pitching debut of 23-year-old Junichi Tazawa of the Pawtucket Red Sox.

Tazawa turned in a quality performance, but left a 2-1 loser to veteran right-hander Nelson

Figueroa and the Buffalo Bisons before an announced crowd of 9,698.

Figueroa (7-5) went eight innings, his longest stint of the season, in shutting down the

PawSox before lefty Jon Switzer finished for his second save. Figueroa allowed four hits and

matched his season high with nine strikeouts. Box score

It was the seventh victory in his last eight decisions for Figueroa, who has been putting

one quality start on top of another — he's only had two poor ones — since the

beginning of the season. He lowered his ERA to 2.25, second best in the International League.

"That's the plan, keep throwing strikes and go as deep into games as I can," Figueroa said.

"I try to go the route every game but with 120 pitches and two lefties coming up in the ninth

it was time for Switzer to take over. The manager [Ken Oberkfell] felt I had done my job."

"Pretty darn good," Oberkfell said of the Figueroa-Tazawa pitching duel. "Figueroa was

outstanding and so was their pitcher. I was impressed."

It was Italian Festival night at the downtown ballpark. Spaghetti and chicken cacciatore

were on the menu in the press box lounge but sushi might have been more appropriate. Nine

members of the media representing six Japanese news organizations were on hand to see Tazawa

pitch his first game for Pawtucket after he went 9-5 with a 2.57 ERA for Portland in the

Eastern League.

Tazawa is famous in Japan because he is attempting to make the jump from amateur ball in

the Japanese Industrial League right to organized ball in the U.S. Most Japanese players who

come here have experience in the Japanese professional leagues.

The Japanese media attention was similar to, but a scaled down version of, the frenzy that

surrounded the big league debuts of Ichiro Suzuki (Mariners), Hideki Matsui (Yankees), Daisuke

Matsuzaka (Red Sox), Kosuke Fukudome (Cubs) and Kenju Johjima (Mariners).

Tazawa, a 5-foot-11, 180-pound right-hander who signed a three-year major league contract

with the Boston Red Sox last Dec. 11, departed after six innings in favor of Marcus McBeth

even though he had thrown only 70 pitches, 47 strikes. He allowed only three hits, no walks

and struck out three.

"He threw a lot of strikes with all of his pitches," said PawSox catcher Dusty Brown, who

has been with the Red Sox organization since 2001 and has experience catching the likes of

Boston's other Japanese pitchers — Matsuzaka, Hideki Okajima and Takashi Saito. "He

settled down a little bit [late in the game when he started getting ground ball outs]. He was

getting on top of the ball better."

Tazawa got off to a slightly rocky start. He gave up an unearned run in the first inning,

then faced the minimum 12 batters the next four innings before the Herd added an insurance run

it needed in the sixth. Wilson Valdez, who opened the inning with a double, scored from third

on a ground out to first by Jesus Feliciano.

Meanwhile, Figueroa was sailing through the Pawtucket batting order. After giving up two

first-inning singles, the veteran right-hander set down 15 in order before a one-out walk to

Jeff Natale in the sixth. Nine of the 15 were strikeout victims, as Figueroa increased his

season total to 94 in 112 innings.

The Red Sox broke through for a run in the seventh. Chris Duncan, who came over to the

Boston organization from the St. Louis Cardinals last week, lined a single to center, moved

around on a passed ball and a sacrifice and scored on Bubba Bell's grounder to second.

The Bisons added left-handed pitcher Adam Pettyjohn to the roster on Tuesday. Pettyjohn,

32, who has big league experience with Detroit and Cincinnati, was signed to a minor league

contract by the New York Mets after he was released last week by Louisville.

Pettyjohn was 1-6 with a 4.68 ERA in 18 games, six of them starts, for the Bats.

Ken Takahashi (0-2, 1.91), who has not pitched in 10 days because of a slight shoulder

problem, will get today's start for the Herd. Takahashi will be on a limited pitching count.

The plan is for Pettyjohn to take over in the middle of the game.

Pettyjohn will join the Herd's starting rotation eventually, according to Oberkfell.