BOSTON — Daisuke Matsuzaka said he felt fine in his return from the disabled list. He certainly didn't look fine.

Troy Glaus hit a grand slam and the St. Louis Cardinals rocked Matsuzaka in his return, beating the Boston Red Sox 9-3 today.

On the DL since May 30 because of a mild strain in his rotator cuff, Matsuzaka (8-1) was tagged for seven runs in one-plus inning. It was the shortest outing of his brief major league career.

"When he came out, there were not complaints about soreness, fatigue, anything, so that's a good sign," Boston manager Terry Francona said. "I'm hopeful we'll just chalk it up to a bad outing."

Matsuzaka walked Skip Schumaker on five pitches to start the game and Aaron Miles followed with a shot into the front row of the right-field seats for his first homer of the season. Jason LaRue added a two-run single later in the first inning.

The Cardinals loaded the bases with no outs in the second and Matsuzaka was relieved by Chris Smith, who made his major league debut.

After getting a big hand for striking out Ankiel swinging, Smith gave up Glaus' slam into the first row of the Green Monster seats to make it 8-0.

"I just hope that I can get back to a good spot," Matsuzaka said through a translator. "The good, I can't really think of anything that was good. Things were mostly bad today."

Matsuzaka made one five-inning rehab start for Triple-A Pawtucket against Lehigh Valley on June 16, going four scoreless innings before allowing three hits and two runs in the fifth.

"For me personally, I didn't feel like I needed it," Matsuzaka said, when asked if he felt like he may have needed another rehab start.

The Cardinals felt like they were facing Matsuzaka at the right time.

"I think if you ask him, his command probably wasn't exactly where he wanted," Glaus said. "He walked a couple of guys. He made some mistakes and we were able to take advantage. It was that simple."

St. Louis manager Tony La Russa agreed that the layoff likely hurt Matsuzaka.

"We caught a break," he said. "He's coming off the disabled list. You could tell he was rusty. He fell behind and had to throw the ball down the middle."

Mitchell Boggs (2-0) pitched effectively into the sixth inning in his third big league start. Rick Ankiel also hit his 12th home run in the seventh for St. Louis.

The Cardinals had scored just four runs in their previous three games before defeating Boston 5-4 Friday night.

J.D. Drew homered for the Red Sox, who lost for just the fourth time in 24 home games.

The Red Sox are assured of dropping a series at Fenway Park for the first time since late April. They had won their previous seven series at home, their longest stretch since taking nine straight from July 18-Sept 8, 2005.

Matsuzaka knew he didn't have his good stuff during his pregame warmup.

"Even during the bullpen, I didn't feel great," he said. "I made my adjustments."

Matsuzaka left his last start May 27 in Seattle with the injury. He allowed more than three runs for just the second time in 12 starts this year, his second season in the majors.

"It just was not a good day," Francona said.

Given a big lead from the start, Boggs gave up three runs and five hits in 5 1-3 innings.

Kyle McClellan, Russ Springer and Jason Isringhausen combined for 3 2-3 innings of one-hit relief.