He said that a left-handed fireballer would be brought from hell. That same left-handed fireballer, Yusei Kikuchi (32, Toronto Blue Jays), paid for the ‘restraint’ with a good pitch without a loss.
Kikuchi took the mound as a starting pitcher in the 2023 Major League (MLB) home game against the Chicago White Sox held at Rogers Center in Toronto, Ontario, Canada on the 27th (Korean time) and won the season with 4 hits and no runs in 5 2/3 innings. took care of He struck out eight while giving up only one walk.
This season, Kikuchi is 4-0 with an ERA of 3.00. Kikuchi has attracted the attention of MLB since his days in Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB) by throwing more than 158 km per hour. Building on expectations, Kikuchi landed in the United States in 2019 after signing a large seven-year, $109 million deal with the Seattle Mariners.
However, his performance did not come out as expected. Kikuchi’s fastballs were thrown as strikes in the middle of the ball, and his earned run average was just 4.97 during his three years with Seattle. In the end, he became a free agent (free agent) as Seattle did not exercise his team option, and moved to Toronto. His first year in Toronto was 6-7 with a 5.19 ERA. it was still
Kikuchi showed in the game on the 27th that this year has changed. From the beginning of the first inning, Kikuchi struck out White Sox Elvis Andrews and Andrew Vaughn in a row and started. He was hit by Lewis Robert Jr., but caught him on the run for second base, ending the first inning with just three batters. He then added a strikeout in the beginning of the second inning and finished with a triple, and he met Andrews again in the crisis in the top of the third inning and induced a strikeout on a swing.
He brought out two runners for the first time in the fifth inning. Kikuchi got a right-handed hit by lead batter Andrew Benintendi and allowed a walk to Sevi Zavala, facing a crisis with one out and first and second base. If it was Kikuchi until last year, he would have lost a lot of runs after being hit with long hits, but ‘Kikuchi of the Year’ was different. He caught the follow-up hitter, Lenin Sosa, with a fly ball in right field, and struck out Romi Gonzalez to prevent another crisis. 안전놀이터
Although he couldn’t fill 6 innings, Toronto won 8-0 on the day thanks to Kikuchi who went down the mound without conceding. Kikuchi is properly filling the last piece of the starting lineup, which was anxious at the beginning of the season. Rather, Ryu Hyun-jin, who prepared for a summer comeback, as well as last year’s ace, Alec Manoa, could not be confident of being an ace. A happy worry unfolded for Toronto.