Baltimore Orioles Japanese pitcher Shintaro Fujinami (29) failed to continue his recent upswing and pitched poorly.
On Sept. 19 (ET), Fujinami started as Baltimore’s second pitcher against the Houston Astros at Minute Maid Park in Houston, Texas, and struggled, allowing three runs on three hits in ⅓ of an inning. Fujinami, who was coming off a seven-game scoreless streak in September, gave up his first earned run in eight games, pushing his ERA back into the high sixes (6.90).스포츠토토
The previous day (Aug. 18), Fujinami threw ⅔ of an inning of one-hit ball, striking out one and walking one, with his fastball reaching 101.5 miles per hour (163.3 kilometers per hour), in the Orioles’ come-from-behind win over the Tampa Bay Rays. With Baltimore clinching a postseason berth, Fujinami will get to experience fall baseball in his first year in the majors. Fujinami, who came to Baltimore from the Oakland Athletics in a trade last July, will get to experience the postseason first, something his high school “rival” Ohtani never did in his six seasons in the majors.
But the previous day’s celebration was short-lived. Fujinami took the mound in the sixth inning of Baltimore’s 3-1 win over Houston on Sept. 19, replacing starter John Minnes. Fujinami got off to a good start by getting leadoff hitter Jose Abreu to fly out to left field on three pitches, but he was in trouble against the next batter, Kyle Tucker, when he was hit by a fastball on the fifth pitch of a 1-2 count.
With one out and two on, Fujinami put together two straight strikes against Chas McCormick to work a 0-2 favorable pitch count. After fouling off pitches three and four, Fujinami threw his fifth pitch, a 100.3 mph (161.4 km/h) fastball, right down the middle, and McCormick’s hard-hit ball sailed over the second baseman for a single.
Fujinami, who gave up his first run in September, was shakier after that. After allowing a stolen base to McCormick to put runners on first and second, Fujinami fired a six-pitch, 96.7-mile-per-hour fastball over the head of Jeremy Peña on a 2-2 pitch count. Peña’s RBI single on the resulting wild pitch tied the game at 3-3, and Fujinami turned the mound over to Jacob Webb. Webb then walked two runners, including the winning run, to extend the lead to 5-3 and increase Fujinami’s deficit to three runs.