Posts tagged HidekiOkajima at FanHouse

Our MLB editor provides weekly dispatches from major league games in Notes From the Clubhouse.

Bad news for Boston fans Monday night. The Red Sox will place designated hitter David Ortiz on the disabled list after an MRI revealed the slugger had a torn tendon sheath in his extensor carpi ulnaris -- a muscle in the wrist. Ortiz is certain to miss at least a few weeks, though the Boston Herald has reported that he will miss at least a month and could face season-ending surgery.

Manager Terry Francona did not indicate the injury was quite that serious, though he will confer with Ortiz, GM Theo Epstein and the team's medical staff tomorrow in Boston.

Big Papi struggled in April, but he was his usual slugging self in May putting up a line of .318/.409/.617 (AVG/OBP/SLG) over the last month. No team in baseball is prepared to replace that kind of production, but the Red Sox are deeper than any other organization in the game and are prepared to make do while Ortiz gets healthy. Francona said after the game that reserve first baseman Sean Casey would likely see additional time while Ortiz is sidelined, but the most likely lineup Francona will put out there will probably feature Manny Ramirez at DH and Jacoby Ellsbury, Brandon Moss and maybe even Bobby Kielty or Kevin Youkilis splitting time in left field.

When asked about seeing more time as a designated hitter, Ramirez said "I love it. I love to DH," though he then went on to joke that if he played there too much it might hurt his chances at getting the Gold Glove he so covets. "It's nice to give him a blow and still keep his bat in the game," said Francona of playing Ramirez at DH.

If the Red Sox were merely losing Ortiz for a few weeks, there wouldn't be much to worry about, but Big Papi's injury is just at the top of a long list of concerns for the reigning champs.

Boston will miss Ortiz, but they'll do a very good job of filling the void in the short-term

A cursory look at Hideki Okajima's statistics would lead you to believe that the Boston lefty has been lights-out this season. He's given up runs in just two of his 18 appearances and has held opposing hitters to a 539 OPS. All's well in Beantown, then, right?

As Jay Payton's grand slam on Wednesday made clear, it isn't. Okajima's allowed 11 of the 14 runners he's inherited to cross home plate so far this season. That's not good for a guy who the Sox are counting on in high-leverage situations. Jonathan Papelbon played good teammate and stuck up for his bullpen mate.

"You have to admit, Okie has come in in some unbelievably difficult situations. You can throw out those numbers all you want, but you can't deny that the situations he's been in this year have been really, really tough."

They have been tough but, then, that's the nature of the beast. In the same role, Okajima allowed only four of 28 inherited runners to score last season. It's still early in the season but not so early that it can be totally written off. What's causing the problem?

The most likely answer is that time has given hitters more of an idea of when and where Okajima will throw certain pitches. It's probably time for him to spend less time mastering craps and more time figuring out a new wrinkle to throw hitters off the scent.

That's Jonathan Papelbon teaching Hideki Okajima how to play craps, complete with a makeshift craps table drawn in the dirt, courtesy of Texas Girl from Center Field. (The "table" is a little hard to see from the video, but if you can see some up close pictures if you click through.) It's worth mentioning that Comerica Park is a stone's throw from three downtown Detroit casinos, not to mention another one across the river in Windsor -- I'm guessing Boston's bullpen took a little field trip during last week's four-game stay in Detroit. (via Deadspin)

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I'll admit it: I thought the Rockies were sunk. Despite their best efforts, they failed to generate any more than two runs before the Red Sox brought in Hideki Okajima. Usually, when Okajima comes in the game, you are three scoreless innings away from a loss.

Not tonight. With no outs and two runners on, Matt Holliday absolutely blasted a home run to dead center, bring the Rockies back to 6-5 and giving them considerably more life than they've shown at any point in this series so far. For the sake of emphasis, repition: Holliday's home run as absolutely blasted. Killed. Destroyed. Et al.

Okajima is looking less vulnerable now; Todd Helton singled with one run, but there are two outs in the inning. Still, even if Okakima gets out of the inning with no further damage, the stage is set. Holliday has given the Rockies a chance. Now they have to capitalize.

UPDATE: The inning is over. On to the eighth.

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Anybody who's looking straight down at his point of release is a scary pitcher. When you throw 90 mph while you're looking somewhere else, that's called dangerous. Hideki Okajima is scary, and dangerous. Fortunately for the Red Sox, he's also just plain good.

Okajima became the first Japanese pitcher to pitch in a World Series game, and he was well prepared.

He came out of the bullpen in relief of Curt Schilling with one out, runners on first and second, and Boston clinging to a 2-1 lead, and proceeded to retire seven straight batters before giving way to Sox closer Jonathan Papelbon, who recorded the final four outs of the game.

"I have some experience in a big stage like this," said Okajima, "so I was confident out there. I felt real good." (...) "I pitched last year in the Japanese World Series," said Boston's lefty reliever, who pitched last season for the Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters.

To think that Okajima was the afterthought from Japan on the heels of Daisuke Matsuzaka's signing. But since the beginning of the season, Okajima has proven to be every bit as important as Dice-K if not more. And in Game Two of the World Series, the largest stage he'll ever be in as a ballplayer, Okajima was outstanding with four strikeouts in two and 1/3 innings. For that, he's the hero of Game Two.
Sorry, No Photos

Living in Cleveland gets tough this time of year, especially if you work in food service. On the floor you've got customers asking you what's happening and what the score is, because I guess a mound of lasagna was too important an item to consume to watch the game themselves. In the back you've got cooks and bussers complaining about the game being on the radio because "baseball boring" and responding to every query of "what's the score" with "who, the browns." But everyone cheers when Borowski gets that final out, and in the middle of your commute home cars start honking wildly and swerving.

Cleveland, you'd better win these games. Fans in Colorado are eating fun-sized candy bars off the floor for nourishment instead of leaving their homes, for fear of spoiling the rally.

Also, the full credit for that Hideki Okajima picture to the right is really just "Elsa," so I guess a super-intelligent farming cow works for Getty Images.

And coming from a man with three viable Rookie of the Year candidates on his roster, this actually means a lot. The Red Sox have both Daisuke Matsuzaka and Hideki Okajima as part of their pitching staff, in addition to second baseman Dustin Pedroia. While Dice-K had around an average year for a starter, he didn't quite live up to his billing. Okajima was a finalist for the final AL All-Star slot, but faded down the stretch. Pedroia on the other hand, hit .317, scored 86 runs, and played a great second base. For those reasons, GM Theo Epstein would vote him Rookie of the Year:

"I don't get too wrapped up in individual awards, but it's hard to see how anyone else out there deserves it more than he does," Epstein said Saturday.

"We're biased because we see him play every day, but in a big market, he's quickly established himself as a core player here, and hopefully for a long time."

Rays OF Delmon Young, Royals starter Brian Bannister, and Yankees reliever Joba Chamberlain, are all other good candidates. I don't think there's too much opposition to Theo's choice here. The real debate is in the National League, where you have Ryan Braun who put up stellar offensive numbers, but was brutal in the field, and Troy Tulowitzki, who had a brilliant all-around season, but didn't stand out at the plate quite like Braun.

Big thanks to our own The Hype for converting this from a local television station for our perusal here at FanHouse. In case you lost count, that's Daisuke Matsuzaka dressed up as the Teletubbie Dipsy, Hideki Okajima and Jacob Ellsbury as female pirates, Clay Buchholz as Minnie Mouse and Brandon Moss as "The Wizard of Oz's" Dorothy.

Baseball players in dresses. Still funnier than Dane Cook.

Dan at Red Sox Monster passes along an imagination-inducing gem from the Boston Herald today ... Hideki Okajima dancing to his new theme song, David Ortiz "gyrating", and the entire clubhouse breaking it down. For real:

In the middle of the delay, the Latin music of Julio Lugo was shut off, and in its place was the new anthem of Red Sox relief pitcher Hideki Okajima. Suddenly, an entire team was dancing in the clubhouse to the beat of "Okajima, Oki-Doke."

"It's awesome," said Okajima's translator, Jeff Yamaguchi, who was the one primarily responsible for the impromptu party. "The clubhouse went nuts (Thursday night). We played it like 30 times.

The song is upbeat and lends itself to dancing, as was evidenced by the gyrations of David Ortiz, Yamaguchi and others.

Not only do I want to know exactly what "the gyrations of David Ortiz" look like, but I want to know the identity of the mysterious Mr. Yoshie, the Japanese friend of Hideki Okajima that composed this danceable cookie. WasManny Ramirez involved? Was J.D. Drew shaking his tailfeather? So many questions!

Two teams vying for the playoffs made deals for big names. Two last place teams swapped players. Guys you thought were gone ended up staying. Teammates weren't happy. But really, it was just a bunch of vagabond players switching uniforms.

Here are your winners and losers:

Winners:

Atlanta Braves

Sure, they gave up a top young player in catcher Jarrod Saltalamacchia (that last name is just way out of control) but picking up Mark Teixeira -- even though his power's a bit down -- brings a proven power hitter on board and a quality defensive first baseman to boot. If Andruw Jones can knock out of his season-long slump (which he seems to maybe be doing) the Braves have a shot at taking over the Mets in the NL East or at worst picking up the Wild Card. In the long run this might not work out in Atlanta's favor, but for the here and now it did.