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Yes, it’s “the other” Japanese pitcher.

Hideki Okajima, a 31-years old left hander from Kyoto, has played in professional baseball organization since 1995. He has 12 years of experience as a professional baseball pitcher. How many years experience Daiske have? 8. Well, he is 5 years younger than Okajima, But still. My point is, he is on the Boston Red Sox roster because he is a good pitcher, not because he speaks Japanese, the language the new international super star Daisuke Matsuzaka speaks. (I am not saying it doesn’t help, I am sure that helps.)

Last night, with Sox’ closer Jonathan Papelbon having worked the last two days in Toronto, Hideki Okajima was called to the mound to work the 9th inning against the division rival, New York Yankees. A first save chance he got in the Major League, AGAINST THE NEW YORK YANKEES. I was nervous. I think I was more nervous than I was watching game that Matsuzaka debuted in Kansas City, or his Fenway debut against Ichiro Suzuki. Okajima converted. It was awesome. Okajima retired Derek Jeter on a weak grounder, walked Bobby Abreu (though Dennis Eckersley in the post-game show on NESN said the third ball could have been a strike, would have been an another K), induced a weak liner to second from Alex Rodriguez and struck out Kevin Thompson to end the game. He pitched again today, facing two hitters, he’s now allowed one run (a first pitch home run to John Buck in KC) and two hits in 8 1/3 innings this season.

Daisuke who?

This entry was posted on Saturday, April 21st, 2007 at 04/21/2007 @ 7:47 pm and is filed under Baseball, Softball, and Judo. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.