The first game of the 2014 SUZUKI All-Star Series was held at Kyocera Dome in Osaka. The first showdown with the MLB All-Star Team in eight years ended with Samurai Japan winning two-nothing.
The starter on the mound was Maeda Kenta (Hiroshima), wearing the ace number 18. In the first round, he allowed a hit from the MLB All-Stars' second batter Cano, then walking Longoria, facing a jam with one out and runners on first and second, but after making the fourth batter Morneau hit a grounder to second, and striking out the fifth batter Puig, he finished the inning with no runs.
Maeda reflects, ""I had a lot of pitches in the first inning."" From the second inning on, he successfully recovered using sliders as his weapon. Maeda's sliders, which consisted of nearly 30% of his pitches, are his signature pitch, which has the lowest opponent's batting average in the NPB of 17% against left-batters. It proved to be powerful against the MLB All-Stars, of whom five of the nine starters were left handed batters (including switch-hitters), and his pitches only allowed one hit from the second inning on. He left the mound after five innings without giving up a run.
The batting lineup, which made four scatter hits in the training game on the 10th, scored the first run after Nobuhiro Matsuda's (Fukuoka SoftBank) sacrifice fly in the second inning, and Tetsuto Yamada (Tokyo Yakult), who stepped up to the plate at the bottom of the fourth with two outs and a runner on second, hit a breaking ball to left field after a count of one ball and two strikes, scoring the critical second point. Even when cornered, he demonstrated his high certainty, with an average of nearly 30% (29.2% *2nd in NPB) against the MLB All-Stars, and brilliantly played his starting position of ""Eighth Batter and First Base"".
The batting line only scored two runs, but demonstrated connection through making nine hits in total, including a third string of hits. Meanwhile, the pitchers had a shutout relay, with Maeda followed by Kazuhisa Makita (Saitama Seibu), Shohei Otani (Hokkaido Nippon-Ham), and Yuji Nishino (Chiba Lotte), and none of them giving up a run. The twenty-year-old Otani, making his debut on the national team, clocked his top pitching speed at 159 km/h, and all the fastballs he pitched today were over 150 km/h. He gave a good view of the pitcher with the top average velocity in the NPB.
Post-Game Comments from Ambassador Akahoshi
Looking back over the game as a whole, I think we were able to play baseball the way Japan wants to. Especially the second run in the fourth inning. The runner that stole second was then singled. And the pitcher's persistence led to victory in this close game. This was a game that was symbolic of what Manager Kokubo wants, and the game's development is what Japan ought to seek on the international stage.
As for the pitchers, the starting pitcher Maeda went five innings without giving up a run. He demonstrated control for lower pitches and high accuracy of his breaking balls, and pitched in a way that proved the excellence of Japanese pitchers. The second pitcher Makita was irregular and not the type you'd find in the Major Leagues, and you could sense his experience on the international stage today. Maeda and Makita both had experience with Major League balls, and were able to rest assured about their pitching. Otani also filled up his pitches with fastballs against the major-league hard-hitters. I feel that he fully demonstrated his specialties.
The batting lineup went in a direction with good tension of bearing the Rising Sun today. As the Major League pitchers kept throwing the ball down the alley, the players could precisely hit the pitches in the strike zone, and produced good results. Not just power, but skill. I am excited to see how Japan will deal with the various types of Major League pitchers in the future.
2014 SUZUKI ALL-STAR SERIES
