Tomura's strange pitching lifts the team to the top place of InterLeague.
He said "I want to show Tomura is different from before" after the last outing. It might be true at some point, but "Tomura was Tomura" on the other point on last night against the Hanshin Tigers.
Kenji Tomura, Tohoku Rakuten's 25 year's old RHP, allowed 7 walks and give a pitched ball with 3 hits in 6 innings, but he never allowed a run. He caught 2nd win of this season assisted by Batting assist; Casey McGehee who marked the first score of the game on top the of 6th inning and Motohiro Shima who add an insurance run on top of the 9th inning. This win lifted the team to the first place of InterLeague 2013.
Tomura was filled the bases three times in the game; on the first, the fourth, and the fifth inning. "I could endure the situation, but my pithing content got zilch", Tomura said after the tough outing and spoke words of soul-searching.
But his rough command didn't allow to focus on aiming ball for Hanshin's lineup. As a result, he went to 6 innings with 103 pitches, and took 3 striking out.
"I need rest from tomorrow. I got a perforated stomach", the team manager Senichi Hoshino joked after the game about Tomura's fighting windmills.
Mishima will gain the first win on next outing.
He can't get the first win on his career even if he just allowed 2 runs in 8 IP. So the pitcher also missed two times on batting, he blamed himself "My fault". But, his reputation has been rising.
Kazuki Mishima, the Yokohama DeNA Baystars' rookie RHP, missed the first career win on 5/26, his 4th starting. 8 IP, 112 pitch, 6 hits, 8 strikeout, and didn't allow any walks. The fact that Mishima has not been able to get a win is truth, but he also has been showed big potential and passion to win.
His best success on last outing was "no walk". Mishima allowed 4 walks on his first (4.0 IP) and second (8 IP) outing, but he decreased the number of walks for 2 on 8 IP on third outing.
To add 8 strikeouts on this time let him lift the strike out rank for 2nd in the league (54 strike out), which follow Tomoyuki Sugano who is also rookie RHP of the Yomiuri Giants and earned 64 strikeouts.
And also, his K/9 rate (10.88) is highest on both leagues within the players who pitched more than 40 IP.
Shohei Otani threw many "if" for fans on his first outing.
5 IP, 86 pitch, 6 hits, 2 strikeout, 3 walks, and 1 run on career first outing. If you see these stats at first, you will think "it is not bad". But if you are adding more info, "he mark 98 mph fastball", you will think "it must be a good pitcher and has great future".
And if you get the name of this stats holder, you must think "It will the beginning of NPB's new legend".
Shohei Otani finished his first task as a starter at Sapporo. He didn't earn first win on his career, but he notched many fastballs which over 150 km/h (around 94 mph) in front of 36,608 fans.
The 18 years old rookie player has already debuted as a batter on the opening day, 3/30, and marked .308 BA (12 hits include 5 doubles in 39 AB), .325 OBP with .436SLG until 5/23. He started another side of his career, pitcher in 5/23.
If he just focuses on batter――. If dig in practice as a pitcher――. If he fails both batter and pitcher ――. Or, if he master both the way――. He threw many "If" for us.
It is certain that he has been joined great surroundings which has been cultivated many hopeful players, especially No.1 RHP on NPB, Yu Darvish. The method and experience which they develop many players will also have a good effect on Shohei Otani.
His journey for the way nobody know has just begun. He will blaze a new trail of Japanese baseball.
Tomura started his season by a win.
It was a late start for him. The young RHP missed some opportunity to pitch by rain and sick on the beginning of the season. But his non-stop effort and strong passion for mound made him a winning pitcher tonight.
Kenji Tomura, the Tohoku Rakuten's former No.1 drafted RHP, tossed the Tokyo Yakult at Sendai. He gave up just one run on five hits in eight innings, and didn't allow any walk.
Senichi Hoshino, the manager of the team, praise him, "It is not looks like last Tomura. He plays tenaciously. 100-ten (Perfect score)". As he pointed and his career WHIP (1.66), Tomura often has runners on bases. But he showed his progress on command of the each ball.
He was allowed first score of the game in the first inning by Balentien's RBI single. But Andrew Jones' game-tying sacrifice fly on bottom of the first inning gave him strong confidence and let him think "batters will assist me".
Tohoku Rakuten's lineup couldn't get a go-ahead score by Kyohei Muranaka, Tokyo Yakult's starter, but "A・J" blasted solo-shot to left-center field at bottom of the fifth inning.
After the score which bring Tomura the winning pitchers right, Tomura didn't have any runners from the fifth inning to seventh inning, and completed 8th inning.
8 IP, 106 pitch, 5 hits, 2 strikeout, 0 walks, 1 run and earned run. As he said "Tomura is different from before".
Will Hokkaido Nipponham find the way to escape from the bottom?
The former league champion has been struggling from the 2nd day of the season. They earned 1st win of this season on opening day, but they are now on bad stream.
There is a simple question. WHY?
It may easy to find answers if you see the league standing. Their total run are lowest in the league, and runs allowed are highest in the league. As these stats showed, they were forced to 9 losing streak from 5/4 to 5/15.
But, if you watch each players stats, it looks fine. Especially, core players on the team fulfills their duty.
At first, Sho Nakata, TEAM Japan's member on WBC 2013, is shining on the sheet of stats ranking. His BA over .330, earned 30 RBI with 11 home run. If this batting 4th of the team continue keep this condition, almost of his stats will notch career high.
Michel Abreu also become core hitter of the team. Now he collect 12 home runs, the highest of the league. The Cuban native is not high BA (around .260), but .340 OBP with .549SLG (3rd of the league) is ranked on high place of stats sheet.
And Yang Dai-Kang earned 16 SB, which is the highest number on the league. Yang is now on stream of 9 consecutive game multi-hit. It is higher than Ichiro's one, and just left 1 game to NPB record.
OK, we shouldn't forget Shohei Otani who are trying to be the master of both pitching and batting. The 18 years old rookie now marked .308BA (12 for 39). He can't use enough time for batting because he need to spend half of the time to pitching practice, but he has already adjusted to professional baseball on batting.
Now, we need to focus on pitchers. you will find some reason why they are sinking on bottom place of the league. As it showed their struggling, their QS rate is just 36.59%. It is the lowest numbers on NPB 2013.
There are few starters who mark sub-3.00 ERA, which include former league MVP, Mitsuo Yoshikawa. Masaru Takeda notch 2.67 ERA, but he just came back from injury on 4/28, and just appeared 5 games on this season. And, relievers are more unsettle than last year. Just only Toshiyuki Yanuki and Hisashi Takeda are mark sub-2.00ERA.
But if pitchers regains their form, it may turn around dramatically. The day has been approaching.
Kazuki Mishima show quality as a starter.
It was 2nd start for him as a professional player who has already appeared on 12 games. To match up with Tetsuya Utsumi, Yomiuri' ace LHP who is the winningest pitcher in 2011 and 2012 of the league, may tough task for him, but Kazuki Mishima didn't allowed any run against the most powerful batting lineup of the NPB.
The rookie RHP, 2nd picked up by the Yokohama DeNA Baystars in last draft conference, collect "0" until 8th inning, with 7 strike outs for 140 pitches. This outstanding result give him chance to be the rotation on Inter League 2013 which is going to begin 5/14. Kiyoshi Nakahata, manager of the team, indicated it.
In begining of the game, Mishima had struggled by rough command of each balls, as he couldn't put them on low zone of strike. The pitching coach, Yui Tomori, said "It is too clear the difference between strike ball and ball one. He fight windmills". 92 mph fastball went high zone, and sharp slider was about to on central of the zone.
He give the Yomiuri the chance in top of 2nd to first score of the game by Jose Lopez' double and 2 walks for Shuichi Murata and Ryota Wakiya. But he escaped this jam by strike out for Tetsuya Utsumi, took infield grounder for Hisayoshi Chono.
As he commented after the game, it made him settle. "I think about many thing in start of the game. I let myself not to think a lot from the middle. Just throw a pitch without much conscious".
This settlement give him more settlement of each ball, and it accelerate his aggressiveness against batters. He marked first 1-2-3 inning in 5th.
In top of 6th, he surrounded again by three runners by single, double, and a walk from 2 outs. But, he had never been upset. The rookie got Wakiya to fly out to left by 90 mph fastball and nasty slider.
He reached 120 pitches in 7th inning, but he appeared on the hill in 8th inning. To face off against heart of order the order of Yomiuri might tough task for him, but this 23 years old young guy turned out Hayato Sakamoto (855 hits in 758 games on 7 year), Shinnosuke Abe (1520 hits and 304 homerun in 1532 games on 13 years), and Lopez.
He relay a baton for Shun Yamaguchi, closer of the team, from 9th inning. No run in bottom of 9th cause winless for him, and the team lost go-ahead run in 10th. But the day will come soon if the batters can assist. His K/9 stats, 11.93 (38 strikes out for 28.2 IP) also show he has good potential.
A Cuban slugger lift the north stars.
How many people can expect his success in NPB at the time? The team, the Hokkaido Nipponham Fighters, needed another slugger who can tag with Sho Nakata and compensate the hole of Yoshio Itoi, but people thought the Cuban hitter will need time to adopt NPB.
However, Michel Abreu found the way to live in NPB soon. The answer is "to hit big smash for the team". The team has been struggling in near bottom place of the league, but "Sho&Ab" combination has already become core of battings.
The Cuban native and now has residency of Costa Rica marked 9 consecutive game hit his from 4/23 to 5/3. And He blasted 4 consecutive game home run between 4/24 to 4/28, and collect 9 home run in April which is the highest number of the league.
His batting in May, .179BA / 5hits / 4RBIs / 10strike out / .273OBP in 8 games, is so cooler than last month. And his hitless ocoured the team's downing. But he will recover soon, and show great stats by his big potential which he got MVP of the Mexican League in 2012 with .371BA / 29HR / 106RBis / 1.153OPS in 108 games.
The team had been sinking under the boarder for post season. They need stable starter, but they need to endure this tough situation and battings has potential to help starters. As he marked a double with a RBI in 5/11, his batting will change the team's stream for good direction.
