Oakland Athletics Shintaro Fujinami (29) was beaten for hunting for the first time.
On the 6th (Korean time), Fujinami pitched in the home game against the Kansas City Royals in the “2023 Major League Baseball” held at Kauffman Stadium in Kansas City, Missouri, USA. He was brought in in the 7th inning with a 9-5 lead, and went down the mound after allowing 3 runs on 3 walks in ⅓ innings.
He had a four-point lead, so I expected him to be a little more comfortable pitching. However, Fujinami’s throws went out of the strike zone every time. He recorded 19 total pitches, with only 4 being ruled strikes.
He had a tough fight from the time he faced the lead batter. He faltered as he gave up a walk to leadoff hitter Edward Olivares. He also gave up a straight walk to Vinny Pasquantino, putting him in danger. He caught follow-up hitter Salvador Perez on a shortstop fly, but threw four consecutive balls to Nick Prato and put the bases full.
Coach Mark Katsei, who was watching from the bench, ordered a replacement, and Fujinami passed the ball to Austin Pruitt and headed to the dugout. Pruitt scored 1 point on a sacrifice fly to Matt Duffy, and Hunter Dozer hit a 2-RBI triple, and Fujinami’s runners all came home.
Fujinami also threw a 99.7 mile (160 km) fastball that day, but it did not mean much because it was not controlled. The average ERA also rose from 12.32 to 13.50.안전놀이터
It is Fujinami who originally prepared for the season as a starting pitcher. He only once pitched 6 innings in 4 starts. It was against the New York Mets on the 16th of last month. At that time, Fujinami recorded 3 hits, 2 homers, 2 walks, 5 strikeouts and 3 runs in 6 innings. He showed pitching quality start (pitching less than 3 earned runs in 6 starting innings). However, he continued to struggle with pitching and was eventually moved to the bullpen. Fujinami was degenerated into a de facto disposal of defeat.
In fact, Fujinami was not a good pitcher. He has been like that ever since he played for the Hanshin Tigers of the Japanese professional baseball team. However, Oakland was attracted to Fujinami’s strong pitch and signed a one-year, $3.25 million contract through the posting system.
The Japanese media did not hide their disappointment at the successive slumps. The Japanese media The Digest harshly criticized that ‘Fujinami repeated the miserable pitching again’.