The 2014 SUZUKI All-Star Series friendship match was held at the Okinawa Cellular Stadium in Naha. Samurai Japan won their final game with the MLB All-Star Team this year with a score of 6 to 4.
In the first inning, the starting pitcher, Shota Takeda (Fukuoka SoftBank), allowed the first batter Escobar to make it to first due to his own throwing error, and allowed an infield hit by the second batter Altuve, and let the third batter Morneau hit a sac fly, allowing three batters to gain a head start. Criticized for his unstable rise, Takeda says, ""Looking back, I had a bad rhythm"". While he did not allow any additional points after that, his pitches would often allow runners, and he was sent to the showers in the third inning. As 38 out of 81 pitches were balls, he had trouble locating.
While Samurai Japan had ended up allowing a head-start for the third straight game, they promptly tied with a clutch in the top of the second, immediately after their runs allowed, with Kenta Imamiya (Fukuoka SoftBank), who had been starting since the fourth game, making his first hit in the series. The defense also had a rhythm this day. With a one-out two-on jam in the bottom of the third, the shortstop Imamiya dove to catch the eighth hitter Fowler's strong grounder to the hole, followed by Yoshihiro Maru (Hiroshima), placed on defense as of this inning, nimbly making a running catch of Butera's big hit to center. After this, in the fourth inning, Ryosuke Kikuichi (Hiroshima), who had shone on offense and defense throughout this series, excited the whole stadium with a super play by catching a high-bounding grounder to the first-base hole while running forward, and pegging the ball to first with a glove toss.
Samurai Japan had played six games in this series up to this point (including send-off games), but even the error in the first inning accentuated the defense's errorlessness. There were two errors recorded due to unlucky irregularities, but with the offense marking additional points in the innings after the defense made big plays, the Japanese weapon of strong defense formed the rhythm for the offense.
After this, the MLB all-star's fourth batter Longoria brought the game to a one-point lead, but with the string of clutches in the eighth inning by the first batter, Yuki Yanagita, and the second batter, Kikuchi, they scored three more points for the win. While the batting lineup never hit a home run, they made 11 hits, their second time making double-digit hits in the series, ending the first All-Star Series in eight years with a victory.
2014 SUZUKI ALL-STAR SERIES
