I Faced Japan’s Home Run Champion

I Faced Japan’s Home Run Champion

At the moment, I’m 1 and3 with a 38 erra. Not good because I have to hit these benchmarks in order to even qualify for Saomura award. So, I got a lot of work to do. And to make matters worse, I’m facing Japan’s home run champion this weekend. Yeah, he’s three for five with three homers off me lifetime. Anyway, I got a lot of work to do to figure out how to get him out. And that journey started Monday, normal off day, but I’m pitching again on Friday, so I need to come in and get my body work done. Uh especially because I got a little bit banged up yesterday through 129 pitches and felt great. But in the middle of the sixth inning, in the middle of a bat, I felt a little bit of a tug on my right adductor, right groin area. Now, did some work activating the glute, did some work loosening that area up and pitched the next two innings and was perfectly fine. I think my mechanics have been a little bit inefficient recently where I’ve been kind of extending my hips going a little bit towards third base early instead of really getting into my back leg properly. goal this week is to get the adductors firing, make sure that they’re strong, but to like get the glutes and everything doing the majority of the work. So, it’s mechanical adjustments. It’s stuff in the weight room, which I’m going to do a little bit of right now. And then it’s conscious of sitting into my backside, being a little bit slower my delivery, and not going to the plate too fast. We’re going to do a couple exercises right now just to get everything firing. I also have a little bit of like a midback spasm thing going on. Not sure if I slept wrong or what. So, I’m not going to load anything today. Just let that calm down and then go finish with some contrast here in a second to uh hopefully loosen my body up. But first, we got to get some adductor work in. So, let’s do that. So, those are great because it forces core stability and also forces adductor engagement, but not just statically. You’re constantly having to adjust to the ball rolling around and handle different positions in slightly different uh balance. And so, that makes everything fire better. So that’s why we’re starting off with those. We also want to get the glutes firing. So we’re going to do some mini band glute bridges next. So we’re activating the adductor. We’re activating the glutes. Trying to stabilize the core. Making sure that the pelvis is in the right position. We’re going to do a little bit of PRI breathing as well. Make sure the pelvis isn’t rotated or uh shifted at all. So we’re going to hit that next. So that one we’re trying to turn off the right adductor. Basically get it to stop doing the action and get the right glute to do the action. That’s why the mini band is helpful there. With my day off work complete, it was off to one of the most unique stadiums in Japan. Ah, Jingu back in Jingu Stadium. 1:30 game on a Tuesday. Not often you see a day game midweek. Usually those are on the weekend, but uh we’re here. Last night was tough. Back was spasmed up pretty good. Didn’t sleep very well because of it. Actually woke up three times in the middle of the night to do like breathing exercises and try to get my back to relax. I ended up having to take some ibuprofen to get some sleep. So, I’m not feeling great today. However, it did seem to work. So, my back is significantly more loose now and seems like we’re going in the right direction. So, we’re going to play some catch and do some more positioning exercises. Oh, we’re just going to try to keep it pretty light today. So far so good on the back. Oh, got to pick my feet up. So, some fun facts about Jingu Stadium. This is a oldest stadium in Japan. I believe it’s also a college stadium. So, college teams have priority here. Meaning, if a college team has a game scheduled, the big league team gets kicked out and the college team plays here first and then the big league team comes in. Jingu Stadium. Crazy. Yes. Yes. Many, many homers. My first introduction to Jingu Stadium, I was with Team USA in playing college in 2009. We were here. And then in 2023, I came back and we played a game here. And the first game I saw within the first four innings, there was nine homers. That game finished like 17 to 11 or something like that. It’s pretty crazy. Yeah, that’s Jingu. Small locker rooms are small, very old, but uh kind of cool traditions. The fans here have some pretty cool stuff they do. So, also big news, we have a new glove that we’re breaking in today. I’ll show you guys this glove a little bit more later. But Bolt, this is Bolt. Bright yellow. Got the red bow outage logo. Look at that right in this in the palm stamp right there. Pretty sick. Lightning strike around it. You got lightning strike written here on the thumb. Of course, you got the TV sword web. This is a special edition glove. You got zero of 30. That’s mine. There’s going to be 30 of these sold. It’s launching later this month. So, got to start breaking it in so I can use it cuz this is sick. I’ve never worn a yellow glove before. Japanese kip leather, so it’s nice and supple. Feels great on my hand. It’s going to break in real nice. Very durable. I like this glove a lot. Love how this came out. H new gloves are always great. You’ll be able to get Bolt later this month at trevorbower.com. But like I said, there’s only 30 of them being sold. Last time we had a glove release, a limited edition glove release with the Kaiju glove. They sold out in 8 minutes. 8 minutes. So if you want this glove, you definitely got to go to treb.com, sign up for the email list to get notified. So you can get yours before they’re gone cuz these ones are going to go really quick, too. It’s a good day for a nap. Nice little breeze, sun, just lay out in the parking lot. [Laughter] Put one of the mats down, go to sleep at 1:00, take a little hour nap, you wake up, it’s third inning, ready to go. You do mouth tape? Yeah. I don’t know if it actually does anything. Got too much facial hair. Yeah, that’s a problem. Feel like if you go mouth tape and you don’t breathe through your nose very well, you’re probably just stressing your body the entire night cuz you’re like short on air. Like last night, my nose kind of like closed up for whatever reason, so I had to breathe through my mouth. I would have been screwed if I had mouth tape on, especially now during allergy season. I probably sneezed like 500 times yesterday. Okay, here we go. Another day. Oh, I caught the first one kind of. Oh, there we go. You got to add that to the repertoire. I got to figure out how to get this Okamoto guy out. I faced him again on Friday. I can’t be giving up two more homers. He’s got me on a sweeper and two fast balls. Up and away fast ball two years ago. Middle middle middle fast ball this year and a middle middle sweeper. So maybe what I should try to do is just throw stuff down in the zone and not throw it middle. That’d be good good starting place. Hey, zero drops. Boy, bolt. Zero. Clean catch game. Uh, if you’re struggling with your direction of the plate, it’s probably affecting your command and your velocity, but I’m going to give you a great drill to fix it, right? It’s called the preset posture squat drill. You’re going to start with your feet a little bit wider than shoulder width, you’re going to set the posture that you want to keep and you’re going to squat as low as you can without bending that posture. So, here, maintain the posture. Squat, squat, squat. Maintain the posture. This is about as low as I can get. So, glove out in front, arm in a neutral, relaxed position here. Squat as deep as you can, maintaining the posture. Okay. From here, you’re going to swivel the hips and make the throw. So, it’s going to look like that on the lower half. Now, that’s going to help you get the feel of how deep in your back leg you can get. And you’re going to want to make sure that you hit that in your delivery. So, if you’re just kind of going across your body like this, like I have been, you’re not getting very much depth and you’re just kind of doing this. Posture squat drill is going to help. If you execute this drill correctly, it’s going to help with your velocity and your command. But here’s the thing. If you have a block leg problem, it’s not going to do you any good. So, if you want to know if you have a block leg problem, download for sports and sign up for the ultimate pitching program, and I’ll tell you, and I’ll do a full mechanical analysis, let you know exactly what drills to do to get the most out of your velocity. I finished up Tuesday sending customized throwing programs to young pitchers on Forap. And after a terrible night’s sleep, it was back to the field for a bullpen. Another interesting thing about Jingu Stadium, sometimes we don’t even uh practice in the field. There’s like a side field that we practice on. We got to walk across the street full uniform, full baseball gear, to uh get to our practice facility. So, that’s today. I’m going to throw a bullpin in the practice facility and uh walk through some fans and stuff to get there. Also, uh right outside of our clubhouse is the parking lot and our gym is actually in the parking lot. Squat rack over here. People doing med balls and rolling out over here. Pretty crazy. Pretty crazy setup. Uh I got a little pop in my rib earlier today, so things reset, which was nice. I got to work on splitter command. Need my splitter to command to be better. Um I got to figure out how to get Okamoto out, too. So, got to ask some questions about that. Oh, I definitely screwed this up by wearing cleats. Got to now tippy toe and hope I don’t slip and fall. We’re in the concourse of the stadium right now. So hopefully I’m done throwing my bullpin before fans get let in. Otherwise, I’m just walking in full uniform through fans. This is what the concourse of Jingu Stadium looks like. So, lots of uh food places. Little merch shop there. Apparently, it’s like an 8 or 10 minute walk to get to this practice facility. I’m going to be going for a while. Hello. Yep. Now we’re literally outside on the public street in full uniform and cleat. RIP. This pair of cleat for walking on cement for an hour and a half. Wait, are we practicing outside or inside? Outside. This building is not good for my allergies. Oh man. Wait, is this our practice field here? Where do I throw my bullpen? On the that mound. That mound. All right, we’ll figure out where the bullpin is later, I guess. Maybe warm up now. Well, I have no idea what’s going on, but I was supposed to throw a bullpin today, so I’m going to do something, I guess. Doesn’t seem like anyone else knows what’s going on either. Well, my body feels very loose. Upper body. No real ill effects from throwing 129 pitches. However, the back is definitely tight, but should be fine. Oh, yeah. Sun’s right in my eyes. It’s perfect. You got the shade and you’re not walking and no sun. You played this perfectly. Now, nice thing about injuries, not that there’s any nice thing about injuries, but generally the pain in your delivery is what tells you what’s going wrong. Got some back spasm stuff and some groin stuff. And that’s probably because I’ve not been doing my delivery quite correctly. I’ve been shooting my hips underneath me. So today I’m trying to avoid the back pain, avoid feeling it, which I haven’t felt it yet, which is good, but I’m trying to avoid it by doing my mechanics correctly. So if you use the pain to like inform your mechanical changes, generally speaking, you end up in a better place because you should be able to throw the ball without feeling pain. Caveman threw spears and they threw spears in order to survive. So since throwing is a natural human movement, you should be able to do it without feeling pain. And if you’re feeling pain, it’s probably because you’re not moving correctly. That’s how I’ve always approached my career anyway. So, if I felt arm pain, I’d be like, “Okay, what can I do mechanically to not feel arm pain?” And eventually, I ended up with a mechanical model where I don’t feel pain when I throw unless I do it wrong. And I’ve been doing it wrong. So, today I’m doing it right. Okay. [Laughter] Okay. Yeah. First half of this pen is about mechanical adjustments. Second half is about command and splitter. Okay. So, that one I felt like I stepped way over there and I was still slightly across my body, which is crazy because that feels like I’m stepping super far open, but I’m not. So, which means I must be used to stepping very far across my body. That’s what that has to mean. Okay, that last throw is about where I want to be. So, we’ll go for that line. Not bad. Somewhere between those two lines. That That felt like the right throw. So, here’s where my toe is and here’s where my heel is. Now, when I look forward, I want to make sure I can draw a line between my toe and my landing spot and go straight to the plate. The toe of my landing leg was in line with the toe of my drive leg and the inner half of the plate to a righty. So, that’s significantly better than where it has been. You can see my heel strike right there. And then my toe points right there. So, you can see one line that I drew right here, and that’s where my toe is. And then I’ll draw another one which is over there. And that is where my heel is. As long as my toe is landing on one of those lines or between it, I know I’m fine. Okay, splitter. We got to get this down. Very good. Nice. I did not commit to the glove there. That was a terrible rep. Change up again. Much better intent. Change up for a strike out of a quick [Applause] pitch. Did not commit to the glove on the change up again. Why? It’s just a fast ball. That’s it. Just throw a fast ball to the glove. Yeah. Yeah. It’s just a fast ball to the glove. No. Okay. My foot’s landing in the right place, but just I’m not committed to that pitch. I think I’m just thinking it’s a change up too much. I’m going to bounce between fast ball down away and splitter and try to take the exact same mental approach the entire time. Now fast ball down away. No. Why do I do that? I make the same mistake every time. Throw the ball. Good talk. Yeah, much better. [Applause] Just throw it. Such an easy game. So hard to execute on my change up. I had a tendency to think way too much on that instead of the other pitches where I was just throwing them. I’m more comfortable with the other pitches. When I got change up, there’s a couple times where I just threw it and like it just didn’t go anywhere close, but I was thinking about something else. I was like, “Oh, I was thinking about mechanics or oh, I was thinking about the release. Oh, I wasn’t thinking about anything there.” A good way to break out of that is to do exactly what I did where I just did some athletic throws where I’m not worried about how the ball’s moving or where it’s going. I’m just worried about feeling the grip and then throwing the ball. My arm is feeling pretty good today, too. No issues. It’s just uh trying to get the back loosened up. And the groin thing that I had earlier in this week, all the work I’ve been doing on that seems to have worked because I didn’t feel it at all today. And hopefully that carries over into the game. Hopefully I don’t feel it early in the game because that would suck. But going to go get some lifting in now and continue to hammer this groin thing and the back and uh hopefully we’ll be in a good spot for the Giants in two days. We just got a bunch of young fans following us. Byebye. Bye. [Music] Hello. All right, let’s get our post throwing done. I was going to lift today, but uh we don’t really have a solid lifting setup. So, we’re just going to get post throwing arm care. Definitely want to get that. And then we’re going to get some groin activation, glute activation. Make sure that we are solid on that front because don’t want to get injured. And then going to call it quits. 30 was a good year for me. I won I once saw Young in 30 and it’s been all downhill from there. There’s going to be so many homers hit today. The wind is blowing like directly out. Hopefully, we’re the one hitting homers. So, obliques are feeling good. And I al also did not feel the back right there. So, that’s good. I think throwing has like helped reset the rib. also all the other work I’ve been doing. But feels pretty good. Feels like normalish now. I haven’t even thought about it during the workout. So, making headway. It is so windy. Oh my goodness. I’ve casually mentioned this back rib issue a couple times this vlog, but it was actually a serious problem in the beginning of the week. Training staff did a great job to get it fixed and get me back to feeling good. And it was such a relief to not feel it during my bullpen. Hopefully, this is the last of my little health concerns for the season. These guys over here have it figured out. The big leg stretch. My hips actually feel good today. My back feels good. My body feels ready to pitch. I think I’m finally out of my hip funk. Just in time to start tomorrow against the Giants in Okamoto, except it’s supposed to rain. So, we’re just right back to the same problems. Ah, running too fast. Blew my hat right off. Never thought I’d have that problem. Plan for today is to play light catch so I can feel good tomorrow. Throw athletically cuz I worked on mechanics a lot yesterday. Throwing the ball athletically, making good throws. Oh, another day at the baseball field. Why does my body always feel best on day four? That’s why I need to pitch every fourth day. All right, let’s start moving a little bit. Nope. Ran away from it. Got too quad dominant. No mechanics, Trevor. Don’t think about it. That was fantastic. When my hips rotate, I snap the ball better. This is great. Great find. Uh hopefully it doesn’t rain. I’d like to pitch, but yeah. Okay, [Laughter] I saw you throwing in a yellow glove today. I assume that’s your own brand’s glove, but do you want to change gloves every start? Not every start. Um, but yeah, I have a I have a new glove coming out later this month. Uh, so I’m breaking it in. His name is Bolt. He’s beautiful. I love him. Is that from you saying Bolt? No. No. It’s uh, I guess inspired by Pikachu. I got fit. Yeah, they fit. These are mine, but I owe you a pair to replace them. I spare for this configuration. Well, I’m going to do my best to not forget the most basic things. You know, the uniform that I have to wear, but somehow I it up. I need to make like a checklist, a packing checklist hanging in my locker. Do you have two pairs of socks? Check. Well, it’s game day, but uh it’s pouring, so there’s probably not going to be a game tonight. I mean, look at this weather. This is terrible. About the only thing we’re playing today is water polo, but I guess we’ll find out when I’m bitching next. Hopefully tomorrow. Hopefully I don’t get skipped. Plan is for me to start tomorrow now. So, I’m going to go do some rolling out in the weight room and play some light catch. Give my arm one extra day to recover. Not that my arm needed it. My body feels fine, but the back spasm, the groin, all that stuff. Uh, one extra day wouldn’t hurt. And yeah, supposed to be beautiful tomorrow. Day game 2:00. And the media wants to do another interview with me as if something has changed. I don’t know why. Oh man, like five cracks in my back. That felt good. I’ve been studying Okamoto a bit. Studying their whole lineup. Really very weak on splitters. And my splitter’s been very good the last couple outings. So going to throw a lot of splitters tomorrow. I was just talking to the pitching coach actually about my splitter. I threw one last game at 850 RPM and it had minus2 cm of movement vertical and it had like 40 cm horizontal, which is like 16. So you ended up with minus 1 in vertical and 16 in horizontal, which is nasty. Uh stuff plus of like 79 on that pitch. 50 is average scale. So 50% above average pitch, which is pretty crazy. How do I do that more often is the question. And so we were just looking at some data, some slow motion. Comment below if you want me to do a splitter breakdown on exactly what I’m thinking. I know some of you guys have been wanting that for a while. Basically, when my pointer finger slips a little bit earlier, then it has less efficiency. So, it ends up with like 55 or 60% efficiency and way more depth and way more run cuz the balls here are different. In America, I need to be between 65 and 75% efficiency for maximum seam shift, but that’s cuz the seams on the ball are a little bit different. In Japan, the seams are a little bit squarer. So, I think I need to have a little bit less efficiency, maybe the 55 to 65 range. And I also threw it like 142, so I think it was like 88 mph. If I had confidence that it was going to be that every single pitch, I’d probably throw splitters like 35 40 times a game. Um was looking at Okamoto and he’s interesting. He hits fast balls that he can get extended on very well, but he also will cheat and hit fast balls in. So clearly looking for fast balls and he hits slow breaking balls very well, but he doesn’t hit the mid-speed breaking balls nearly as well. It’s almost like he’s timed on fast ball and then he can’t see the speed difference on the middle speed pitches cuz it’s too close to the fast ball. So, he swings fast ball and misses or mis hits the middle speed pitches. But if he can see the speed difference, like on sweepers or curve balls, he’s able to delay his swing enough with his legs, he can make contact and kind of flick the ball for hits. He’s kind of backwards. Most righties hit middle speed pitches better. They’re late on fast balls in and you get them out on the slow speed stuff or he’s going to miss the middle speed stuff and hit the slower speed stuff. So, I’m definitely going to keep that in mind tomorrow when I’m out there. Very interesting hitter, very talented hitter. about tomorrow. So just in case I made this for you, I’m going to just wear it. Yes. Yes. Beautiful. Actually hang up on your I need to get a I need to get a necklace and just just wear it every day. Necklace. Sean, what’s this? What’s this called? It’s teru. This way. If I want rain this way. You do it that way. You’ll get rain. This no rain. No rain. Yes. Okay. Thank you. Look at this teru ball. If you put it up this way, this is when you want rain. If you hang it this way, it’s no rain. So, I’m just going to wear this with me wherever I go. Necklace. Oh, no. Hang it on my locker probably. Today would have been a good day outside of the sleep. So, hopefully we just maintain this feel tomorrow. Interesting note on sleep going into start day. I know a lot of people see me tracking my sleep and like, “Oh my god, you’re using technology to tell you how you feel. Oh my god, don’t think about that stuff. Well, here’s why. I have data that says when I get higher amounts of REM sleep leading into a game, my command is better. I also have data that says I tend to throw harder. It’s kind of important to know. What it’s important to know for is how do you repeat that so you get those results more often. So your body is more prepared more often. So that’s why I track sleep so closely. It leads to sustained and better results. It’s very obviously going to rain today. H well, Okamoto didn’t hit a homer off me today, so today’s been a good day. I finished the day getting some work done and I registered an 81 sleep score, which is better, but still not great. I really need to figure out what’s going on with that cuz I’ve not been sleeping well and that’s not good. Fortunately, I had some new sleep gadgets to play with that are supposed to help with that. So, what I’m doing here is pretty cool. I got this little heart rate strap on my arm here. And on this app, the optimal HRV app, it has a guided protocol to take me between like eight breaths per minute all the way down to 3 and 1 half breaths per minute. And it’s basically saying what is my resonant frequency? What is the frequency with which I breathe that is best for my body for like calming me down. So it gave me a reading of six breaths per minute. So you can imagine that’s about 10 seconds, maybe 4 seconds in, 6 seconds out, something like that. Anyway, now I know my resonant frequency. So when I need to relax, I know what frequency I need to breathe at. So it’s good information to know and that’s going to guide my like nighttime breathing routines. It’s going to guide my wake up routines. Knowing how to breathe to put myself into a sympathetic state like pregame and then knowing how to breathe to put myself into a parasympathetic state like after a workout or after a game because there’s research that says the quicker you get to parasympathetic after a workout, the more benefit you get from it. So, the people who get there quickest, the people who get parasympathetic quickest get more benefit out of the exact same workout. Anyway, it’s game day, Giants. Time to head to the field. So, the key of the game is not letting Okamoto beat me. Last time I faced these guys, I was behind the count a lot and it cost me. So, I need to throw strike one. First up is I Isiziguchi. Now, I figured he’d be swinging for his pitch and he did. 147 is not fast enough. So, that means I’m likely going to have to face Okamoto with runners on this inning, which isn’t great. He’s hitting fourth. Up second is Cabbage. Now, it’s the first time I’m facing Cabbage, and he’s a high-risk, high reward type of the bat. He’s going to strike out more than traditional Japanese players, but he’s also got a lot of power and he’s going to hit a lot more homers. I’m just with the first two to fall behind 2, and I threw a really dangerous 20 pitch because that’s right in his power zone if he swings and it’s probably a homer, but luckily he didn’t and I got away with it. Now, 2-1, I figured he was looking for a heater and I didn’t want to throw that. So, I chose to switch the movements and throw a cutter. I missed over the plate and got a little bit lucky because he pulled it just foul. But now I have a good tunnel setup for a curve ball. And my catcher Matsu makes an incredible play here. A stolen base attempt on a bounced curve ball. So he’s popping up to throw the guy out. Has to backhand it, picks it out of the dirt and makes a perfect throw to second to erase the runner. That’s an incredibly difficult play and he made it look easy. It’s really impressive for a kid as young as he is. And it saved me here because unfortunately two pitches later I walked cabbage and without the caught stealing I’d be in a lot of trouble with two people on nobody out and definitely having to face Okamoto heading third is Yoshikawa and Okamoto’s on deck so I need to get an out here and that starts by getting ahead. I threw a good cutter and got a ground out back to me and Breeze made a spectacular play. I mean look at that perfect execution, perfect timing, no bobbles, no rush, just big league defense. And luckily for you, you can get Breeze, the same exact glove I use in games right now at trevorbower.com. Assuming you click the link right now before they’re all sold out. Going out for the second Okamoto’s leading off facing with no one on, which is huge. And I execute a nice cutter away to get ahead, followed by a waist fast ball up and in. But I can use that waist pitch to throw a curveball strike, which I execute to perfection to go to one two. Now I tried the curveball again out of the first pitch cutter tunnel, but it was a little short to get the swing. So, I try to freeze fast ball down and away, which I think probably ends the at bat if it’s a strike, but I miss by a couple inches. And with nobody on, I decide to challenge him here. It’s early in the game. If he hits a homer, it’s one run, whatever. So, I threw a 3-2 fast ball and got a ground out to third, which is a big win for the good guys. Hitting fifth is Kai. I threw an anchor cutter for a strike, followed by a slower, bigger sweeper. And you can see that he’s really out in front of this. And I got a quick roll over to third base. It’s perfectly executed. Two outs and up six is Masuda. I threw a fast ball up and in for strike one, which sets a great tunnel. I missed with a cutter and didn’t get much reaction. So, I used the cutter tunnel to run a fast ball back on the plate to steal strike two and go to one two. Now, I tried the splitter out of that same tunnel, figuring I’d break it below the zone, but I missed pretty badly. And I have no idea how I managed to foul off this 22 sweeper. It was great pitch, great location, but great bat to ball skills from him here. Now, I’ve tried the splitter again, and it was better this time, but it started too far off the plate. All of this led me to one of my new favorite K’s, the folded sword. It’s extremely rare, but extremely effective when you can get it. Folded sword. Incredible. So, through two innings, I’ve somehow faced the minimum. And that led me to my first to betat. I came up in the bottom of the second with two outs and bases loaded. So, a hit here would be huge. I got a first pitch fast ball that I probably could have hit, but it blew my doors off. It was by me. Next, he painted the outside corner to go 02. Not much I can do about that pitch. Now, his fastball has a lot of armside run to it. So, I saw this O2 pitch as something that was going to be hitable. Like when I saw it start to break, I tried to hold up, but the slider has basically no movement to it. It’s just kind of like a zero ball and it held the edge of the plate, clipped the zone, and that’s a strike out. Start of the third inning, Nakayyama. I threw a cutter for strike one, and I finally threw a good splitter for a strike. Let’s just take a second to appreciate the movement on this pitch. Nasty. Now, I had a sense he was looking off speed in two strikes, so I tried the front hip fast ball, but missed too high. It was close enough though to open up the curveball tunnel and I hit the tunnel exactly with the next pitch and got the K. Up next is the eight-hole hitter and I went slide step fast ball up and away for a foul ball and it gave me a good sense of where his timing was. Followed by a terrible waist splitter. I repeat it though and actually I really like this pitch. I’m going to throw it more. It’s like the back door freeze splitter. I think that opens up a lot of great tunnels for me and balances out all the cutters and sweepers that I throw away to righties. Anyway, I tried to bounce a curveball the next pitch and left it high enough that he could get the bat on it. I didn’t really have a tunnel set up for it, but I get the weak grounder and that brought up the pitcher. And there’s really nothing to break down here other than me just struggling to throw strikes. I did get a helicopter strike out though, which is kind of cool. First one of those I’ve gotten. It’s when the hitter swings and like continues to twirl the bat around his head. Helicopter. Back to the top of the order for the top of the fourth. Easi. And with Okamoto do up fourth, I need a cleaning here. I started the bat with a really nice backdoor cutter for a strike one to get ahead. And then I landed a freeze curve ball putting me in a dominant 02 count. I went for a fast ball up and in, but I missed something that was a consistent issue throughout this game. Next, I tried to throw a curve ball from the same tunnel, but I left it in the zone and I gave up a missile. Luckily, it went right to my second baseman for an out. Not my finest pitch, but I’ll definitely take it. Next up is Cabbage. And I’d only thrown him one fast ball on the first at bat and he was late on it. So, I wanted to speed him up a bit here to see where he was at. I have no idea how he got on top of this ball, but good swing on his part, I guess. Uh then I’d probably have to face Okamoto with runners on this inning which was not optimal but you know is what it is and exactly like the first inning. So maybe I can get out of it. Next up is Yoshiawa and I went first pitch split that ended up being a perfect pitch out because cabbage for some reason was running. Not sure exactly why with one out and three and four do up, but Matsuo cuts down another runner and that bails me out yet again. Now I might not have to face Okamoto this inning. So at this point I approached it as a brand new at bat. I just ignored ball one. Threw a really nice back door cutter to get back to 1-1, followed by a fast ball in, which I’m pretty sure was a ball, but I get the call. Very nice catch by Matsua right there. And now we’re one two. I figured I’d use that low tunnel as setting the edge and throw a splitter that looked like it was more of a strike and then broke out of the zone. But again, I threw a really poor one and pulled it. I tried to freeze curveball and miss really badly. And now with Okamoto on deck, I’m like, “Okay, I’m not going to walk this guy. I got to force him to hit the ball because at least then I have a chance that he might be out.” I decided to throw a fast ball in the middle, a challenge fast ball. Unfortunately, he squared it up, but it went right to my third baseman and I got out of the inning. So, that was pretty bad inning overall execution-wise for me, but a nice defensive play and a couple of lucky batted balls and I’m out of it. And with all that, somehow I’ve still faced the minimum number of hitters through four innings. Out for the fifth, Okamoto’s leading off. He hadn’t looked great on curve balls in the first at bat and I decided to start this bat off with one, but he crushed it foul. Now, he’s generally a good curveball hitter, so I can’t leave one there again. I threw another pulled splitter. That pitch has been unreliable all game. And I added a hesitation leg kick to disrupt his timing. Then I threw a cutter down and away, which was a good pitch, but he didn’t bite, so I’m behind in the count 2-1. I tried to freeze fast ball down and away, and I just missed really badly. I threw a cutter down and away, expecting a swing, but I left it middle. And luckily, it was only a double and not a homer because that’s a super hitable pitch. Even luckier for me, he popped off the base after sliding in. Now, he was safe and he popped up and got tagged. So, he ended up being out instead of a man on second, nobody out. I’ve got no one out, nobody on, and I’m still somehow facing the minimum. Next up is Kai. And I opened up with a slideep sweeper that he just missed. Very hitable. I don’t want to throw that pitch again at all. So, I threw a great splitter that started off the plate and ran back in, but he didn’t flinch. And then I hung a sweeper and got lucky on the freeze cuz if he swings at this, he probably doesn’t miss it like the first pitch of the at bat. With a one-tw count, I stayed in the same tunnel, but I went curveball in the dirt. Perfect execution, but no swing. I tried a freeze fast ball down and away and he was super late. Based on that, I threw a change up below the zone. Missed really badly. I just Yeah, broken record at this point on how bad that pitch has been in this game. So, we’re 3-2. I went slide with the cutter to mix in a little timing disruption and got a ground ball to second. So, really sloppy at bat, but ended up working out. Two outs. Next up is Masuda. I started off with a quick pitch cutter and missed badly. Usually a free strike, but not great way to start the at bat here. threw another cutter at 1 and missed off the plate again. So now we’re in a hole at 2 and I went with a fast ball that needed to be down and away to be effective. But I left it over the heart of the plate and gave up a single, but that brought Nakiyama to the plate. Now my command continued to slip and I missed with another high cutter for ball one. Actually recognized the issue and made an adjustment. So I came back with a cutter for strike one and then I followed it with a splitter that actually found the zone. I tried to bounce a curveball next, but I left it up in the zone. Unfortunately, it resulted in a weak ground ball right to my shortstop and we’re out of the inning. Another really sloppy inning. And I’m lucky I didn’t give up more damage. But you know what? After some of the bad luck that I’ve had, I’ll certainly take it. And that leads us to my second at bat. I wanted to make him throw as many pitches as possible. So I auto took the first pitch hoping it would be a ball. It wasn’t. Then he threw me this crazy back door splitter, which I read as a ball immediately and it wasn’t. Then 02 just down and away fast for strike three and I just had no shot. Bad at bat. Pathetic. Back out for the sixth inning facing the eight hole hitter. Still 000 game. And the inning couldn’t have started any worse. First pitch, a perfect bunt, followed by a throwing error that moved him over to second base with the top of the order coming out. That’s exactly what I didn’t want to have happen, but I do have the pitcher here where I can get an out. So, he laid down a solid sack bunt, but luckily the ball was like in the air. I don’t know if the guy in second thought we were going to catch or not, but he had to hesitate and he didn’t make it to third. So, I just get a free out and no advanced runner, which is huge. But two pitches in and now we’re back to the top of the order with Izziguchi. First pitch, curve ball and he hammered it. foul. So, he was definitely slowed down and looking off speed. So, I went fast ball in and he was nowhere near it timing wise. It wasn’t a strike, but it definitely told me where he was timing wise. He was looking for something slow. Tried to change up at 1-1 and missed badly again. 2-1. I figured he was sitting fast ball and I threw a splitter down the middle. He was way out in front of it. Lucky break. Next pitch, I threw a fast ball and even though he’s really late, he kind of like just blocked it towards third and he actually missed a double by about 2 feet. Like, it barely was foul. Next, I went for a back door sweeper. Yanked it down and in, but I got a bad swing for a foul ball. And that helped me set up the fast ball down away, which I actually executed pretty well and got a popup that left the runner at second base. So, another really scattered messy at bat, but it ended in a good result. I have definitely not been sharp recently in this game. That brought up Cavage, and I wasn’t about to let him jump on a first pitch fast ball like he did last time. So, I started him off with a curveball out of that same tunnel, and I got the trigger, and ultimately got a little check swing sword for strike one. Next curveball was well executed. Not sure how he held up on it exactly. Maybe he froze. I don’t know. But 1-1. And I threw a splitter right in his hot zone. Like if I was going to try to give up a homer, I would have thrown this pitch down and in middle speed after two curve balls. But luckily, the movement on my splitter is elite and he missed it. Followed it up with a nasty curveball and got the strike out to end the inning and preserve the 000 score. And more importantly, I didn’t have to face Okamoto with runners on. Time for the seventh inning. Now, it’s still 0 at this point. And first up is the three-hole hitter, Yoshkawa. I started him off with a perfect back door sweeper for strike one, and then followed up with a fast ball up and in. Not a strike, but it backed him up and definitely sped him up. You can tell by his reaction that he definitely paid attention to that pitch. I tried a fast ball away, fell behind a 2-1, and he looked to be hunting a fast ball. He was out in front of a cutter, pulling it off his foot or his shin. That had to hurt. And that got me to 22. And finally, I executed a splitter down into my arm side, something I’ve been trying to do all game, and got a ground out for out number one, which is huge because it meant Okamoto would come up with no one on. Now, this is the seventh inning of a 000 game. And I decided to pitch Okamoto carefully. Now, one swing could lose the game for me, so I was okay walking him here. I started off with the cutter for a strike. That’s probably a ball, but I’ll take it. Then, I went fastball up and in, just like his first at bat. Instead of throwing the curve ball here, I decided to save it for later in the at bat. I went fast ball in again and this looked like a strike live to me, but maybe it missed by a couple inches. It looked like it kind of surprised Okamoto, the umpire, and my catcher. Either way, I’m behind 2-1 and I wanted to avoid a mistake over the middle and then threw a change up right in the middle. I got lucky that he didn’t swing cuz that was definitely another homer pitch. So, I went with the curveball off the up and in fastball tunnel and he buckled and if the pitch was down like 3 or 4 in, it’s a strike out. I tried the freeze fast ball down and the way trying to pick off the exact corner over there, missed. So, ended up with a walk. Fine to pass on this at bat. So that brought up Kai. Threw a first pitch fast ball for a ball and wanted to speed him up since I hadn’t thrown in many heaters this game. So I came back with a wellplaced cutter to get to 1-1 and then another perfect cutter that he swung through to go one two. Now I threw a really good sweeper out of that exact same tunnel and he didn’t even budge which to me tells me that he’s looking at like tendencies and he just was sitting on slow in that one two count. So I tried the down and away fast ball and I just missed badly just like every other time that I’ve tried it. So, I decided to go with a slide step and I finally executed that fast ball down in a way that I’ve been trying to get all game and we easily threw Okamoto out for our third caught stealing of the game and it’s another double play and it ends the inning which is just a huge break for me. So, pitching around Okamoto right there worked out well and I finally executed the pitch that I needed in the biggest spot and yeah, great execution and that brought me to my third bat of the day in the bottom of the seventh. There’s one out and a man on first and a sack bunt and a hit here would get me a lead. So, I do need to get this down. First pitch was down, I thought, but the umpire called it a strike. And the 01 pitch was outside, but he called that a strike, too. So, now I’m thinking like, well, I got to try to bump anything close. And I chased the slider out of the zone, but fortunately, I’d seen that pitch earlier and knew it didn’t move much. And I was able to get it down and execute the sack bunt on an O2 count. So, disaster averted there. I think those were balls. I should have been up two in the count, but whatever. Got the sack bunt down and we didn’t get a hit, though. So, back out for the eighth inning. Still 0 0. First up is Masuda. Now, I’m already at 100 pitches and I got 678 in the order. And if I play this right, I won’t have to face Okamoto again. That assumes that we get a run, of course. So, I throw cutter strike one and sweeper strike two, setting up a nice high off speed tunnel, followed by a curveball out of the same tunnel for a grounder to short, and out number one. Not sure how he made contact on that, obviously. Probably was just cuz he was slowed down. I needed to throw a fast ball in there somewhere, but still really impressive on his part. Next up is a pinch hitter, Akihiro, one of their young prospects, and he’s got big power, so I got to avoid down and in. I executed a nice splitter for strike one, followed by a slide step to protected a poorly executed fast ball down and in, in which case I got to pop out to center. Great start to the inning, even though I threw a dangerous pitch right there. So, two outs, I start off with a slideep fast ball down and away. And maybe my command’s finally starting to come to me a little bit in the eighth inning after 100 pitches, cuz I’m starting to execute better. Pause leg kick, curve ball for a swing and a miss. And now I have him all off balance and confused. So I tried the bounce curve ball that set up the tunnel for the fast ball down and away which he fouled off. But that set the tunnel for the best sweeper I’ve thrown all day and I get the punch out. That was a really well executed at bat, bouncing off of pitch to pitch to pitch out of the same tunnel and changing up the speed. So I’m really happy with that one. And the boys finally scored a run in the bottom of the eighth. So I went out for the ninth with a one-run lead, looking for a complete game shut out. Another pinch hitter to lead off the inning, Oshiro. And I went first pitch sweeper back door. I yanked it down and in a little bit and got an ugly swing. And then I followed up with a great splitter and somehow he didn’t even trigger on it. Then I followed that up with a terrible splitter to go behind 2-1. Followed up with a freeze fast ball down and away. Needed that to get back to 22. Been trying to go to that pitch to lefties all day and I finally executed it. Followed by a perfect freeze curveball to get strike three and we got an out. Next up is the onehole hitter Isaguchi. Fourth time facing him the day. First pitch sweeper, ground ball to short, but somehow he beat it out for a hit. And now Okamoto is looming three hitters away. So, I need to get this guy out. And it’s Cabbage, which is dangerous cuz he’s got home run power. And if he gets one here, I lose the game. So, I started off with ball one. I thought it was a strike, but apparently not. Sure looked like it live. I threw a perfect change up to get back to 1-1 followed by a hitable curve for a weak fly out to center. And I’m fortunate that he didn’t hit that better because he’s seen a lot of curve balls and that was definitely very hitable. Anyway, two outs, Yoshikawa. And this at bat is critical because if Yoshikawa gets on, I’m probably going to walk Okamoto so he doesn’t beat me. And then I have to get an out. I do a change up for strike one followed by a good swing on a curveball to move to 02. And now I need to bounce the curve ball cuz he just took a good swing on that one. If I leave in the zone, it’s very hitable, which is yeah, exactly what I did. I left a little bit higher than I’d like. Now it was away, which probably saved me, but he got the barrel to it. Unfortunately, he hit this little routine looper to left instead of finding a gap. And that stranded Okamoto on deck and completed the complete game shut out, which is the first one I’ve had in a long time. So, I finished the day with a 2.8 ERA, which is manageable. And I picked up another win, which I really needed. So, I didn’t pitch great, but some luck balanced out. Some things started to go my way finally. Two starts ago, I felt like my Somura chances were basically gone, but now I feel like I have a chance again, and there’s lots of baseball left. So subscribe so you don’t miss the journey.

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