3 walks against 4 batters. The sluggishness of Japanese pitcher Shintaro Fujinami (29, Oakland Athletics), who filled up runners and went down after 19 pitches, continues.
On the 6th (hereinafter Korean time), Fujinami made a relief mound as the third pitcher in the 7th inning in an away game against the Kansas City Royals in the 2023 Major League Baseball held at Coffman Stadium in Kansas City, Missouri, USA. It was a 9-5, 4-point lead situation.
However, the 4-point lead was too much for Fujinami. He gave up a walk to leadoff hitter Edward Olivares on five pitches before allowing a straight walk to Vinny Pas Quantino. All four balls were four-seam fastballs, but all went out of the zone.
Salvador Perez finished a 6-pitch full count match, and the shortstop infield shot a fly ball, but Nick Prato walked again straight. This time, all of them were four-seam fastballs, and the pitchers did not listen at all. In the end, he was replaced by Austin Pruitt in the crisis with one company loaded.
Out of 19 total pitches, only 4 were strikes, which was 15 balls. The speed of the four-seam fastball reached a maximum of 99.7 miles (160.5 km) and an average of 97.2 miles (156.4 km), but it was as good as a dead ball because it was not controlled.
After reliever Pruitt, who came up next, gave up a sacrifice fly to Matt Duffy, Hunter Dozier hit a two-run triple, allowing Fujinami three runs. Oakland, which added 3 runs in the 8th and 9th innings, won 12-8, but Fujinami couldn’t help but smile.안전놀이터
As a result, Fujinami’s season ERA rose from 12.32 to 13.50. In his first four games as a starter, he suffered 4 losses without a win and had an extremely poor ERA of 14.40. After that, Fujinami was transferred to the bullpen. However, he has not been able to rebound with an average ERA of 10.39, giving up 6 runs (5 ERA) in 4⅓ innings in 4 games as a relief until this day.
The jegu hunting problem is seldom resolved. He allowed 19 walks in 19⅓ innings. He strikes out more than 18 at a rate of one per inning. There are also three balls that fit the body. Hitters are about to cringe at a ball they don’t know where it will come from.
It’s not yesterday or today. Ever since he was in Japan, Fujinami is a pitcher whose growth stopped at some point due to a problem with his pitch. He was 4.2 per 9 innings with 459 walks in 994⅓ career innings in 10 seasons with the Hanshin Tigers in Japan. Since 2017, his control has rapidly deteriorated, but last year it seemed to improve to some extent with 21 walks in 66⅔ innings and 2.8 per 9 innings. As a result, ‘Small Market’ Oakland spent a huge amount of money with an annual salary of $ 3.25 million, but the search for the first pitch broke out again in the major leagues. The club, which already had no money, failed even to invest.