This is not the way any Hanshin fans expected the season to begin. After a strong showing in March (7-3-2) and June practice games (5-3-3), it looked like enough players were firing on all cylinders to give this team a shot at another 2003 or 2005 type of season. Everyone seemed to be hitting the ball quite well, and they were scoring runs at will. Could they keep this up when the games counted? I was a little worried back at the start of June…
Alas, my request back fell on deaf ears:
There have been precious few bullets through the first six games of the regular season. Well, there *have* been five home runs, but four of them were solos and the other was a two-run shot. That means they have scored just four runs in other ways this season: starting pitcher Yuki Nishi’s RBI double on Opening Day, Yoshio Itoi’s RBI double on Tuesday, Ryutaro Umeno’s RBI single that same day, and the run that scored on Itoi’s double-play on Wednesday. That is all.
Meanwhile, the pitchers have not been all they are cracked up to be. The Japanese starters have all been decent:
Nishi 6/19: 6 IP 1 R RESULT: L, 2-3
Iwasada 6/20: 6 IP 3 R RESULT: L, 1-11
Aoyagi 6/23: 6 IP 0 R RESULT: W, 4-1
Akiyama 6/25: 6 IP 0 R RESULT: L, 1-3x
But the two import starters both got eaten alive:
Garcia 6/21: 4 IP 5 R RESULT: L, 1-7
Gunkel 6/24: 4 IP 3 R RESULT: L, 1-6
What’s more, the bullpen has been allowing runs. A quick look at the math shows that in 17 ⅔ innings, they have given up 19 runs. Yyyeah. Not pretty.
And so it is no wonder that the team has just one victory to its name so far.
Problems outside of the obvious “We’re not hitting” and “Our pitching has stunk it up”? Well, using all three catchers in the first three games of the year has not been the answer. There is a lot more to it than just the man behind the mask and the one on the mound, but this is the breakdown of catcher ERA:
Umeno = 25 ⅔ innings, 7 runs against = 2.45 ERA, 0 SBs against
Haraguchi = 16 innings, 17 runs against = 9.56 ERA, 4 SBs against
Sakamoto = 8 innings, 7 runs against = 6.22 ERA, 1 SB against
Again, nothing scientific here, nor is it particularly surprising, but I wonder why they gave the import pitchers to the catcher with the least in-game experience? Wouldn’t you want your two-time Golden Glove winner behind the plate more than just three of your first six games?
Also, why has Yusuke Ohyama been given the cold shoulder? He led the team in home runs and RBIs last season and also was the top hitter in NPB in March (.378) — I know, those games mean nothing — and yet through six games, he has one start and just six plate appearances.
Lots of question marks early on. The season is only 5% done, so we cannot reach any conclusions about how this team will look at the end. However, it had better start going uphill from here, or we may not have much 勝 (sho) time or 笑 (sho) time.