The fourth match of the 2014 SUZUKI All-Star Series was held in Tokyo Dome. Samurai Japan was going for their fourth straight win, but they were beaten by the MLB All-Star Team, with the pitchers allowing 10 hits, including 2 homeruns, and gave up six runs. They lost 1 to 6, leaving behind their first loss of the series.
The pitcher that started on the mound was Shintaro Fujinami (Hanshin), who started in the exhibition game on the 10th. In the first inning, he called out the first batter Altuve on strikes with his signature cut balls, but with the second batter Puig and the third batter Morneau hitting straight doubles, they gave up a run right away. All the hits were on the first pitch, and were intended to be strikes.
Immediately after this, on the top of the second, Samurai Japan tied the game with a run-scoring double from the sixth batter Yoshitomo Tsutsugo (Yokohama DeNA), but Fujinami's rough pitching continued. In the bottom of the third with one out, he allowed hits from Altuve and Puig, leading to a jam with one out and runners on second and third. The third batter Morneau then hit a breaking ball into the right field seats on a full count, bringing the score to 1-to-4. Fujinami faced only three batters in the fourth inning, but left the mound with five hits and four runs allowed in four innings. He also threw 70 pitches. Fujinami had one of the highest pitch rates during last season, with an average of 17.4 pitches per inning (NPB's worst among pitchers with the required innings pitched), and could not pitch five innings with a limited number of pitches. The second pitcher, Minoru Iwata (Hanshin), and the third pitcher, Shota Takeda (Fukuoka SoftBank), gave up one run each.
The top of the batting order was rearranged, with Tetsuto Yamada (Tokyo Yakult), who had a batting average of 50% in this tournament, as the first batter, and Seiichi Uchikawa (Fukuoka SoftBank) as the third batter, and while they made nine hits, they only scored one run. Tsutsugo, who has the NPB's top batting average with runs in scoring position of .416, demonstrated clutch hitting no different from his regular season, but the rest of the batters could not follow up, and this game left challenges for both pitchers and batters.
Post-Game Comment from Ambassador Akahoshi
The final score was 1-to-6. As a former Hanshin player, it's a shame that two Hanshin pitchers were beaten like this, but MLB All-Stars batted like one would expect. The third batter Morneau, with his four runs batted in, comes to mind, but I think the cause of our loss was that they could not stop the first batter Altuve and the second batter Puig.
The starting pitcher Fujinami had a lot of good pitches, but the fact that his pitches were higher compared to yesterday's four pitchers (with no hits and no runs) led to him giving up no points. He himself says, ""I tried to play with too much force"", and I think he's right. The higher pitches made them easier to hit. I think this was a learning experience for Fujinami.
The batting line switched out many members and managed a total of nine hits, but only scored one run. They were checked when it counted the most. Among these, Tsutsugo's trips to the plate were good. He lost two of them to the opponents' defense, but his run batted in on his first time at bat was excellent. I think it was a good appeal. Then Yanagita made three hits. He demonstrated presence in a contest of power.
We're now at three wins and one loss, but in the sense that this is a training match, we have a lot we can learn from our loss. We haven't had many settings where we've moved the bench, so there are many things we still have to learn. This has produced challenges for the individual players and the team as a whole, so I hope that this defeat can be put to good use in the next game.
2014 SUZUKI ALL-STAR SERIES
