Major League Baseball pitcher Shintaro Fujinami of the Athletics started the opening game against the Brewers on the 25th and allowed two runs in six innings to finish his last pitch before the start of the season. Fujinami will make his big league debut on the 6st of next month against Shohei Ohtani's Angels.
Fujinami, who transferred to the Athletics from professional baseball club Hanshin, has been making good adjustments so far and started the opening game against the Brewers in Mesa, Arizona on the 25th.
Fujinami held the pitcher scoreless until the third inning, but he lost control in the fourth inning, and when two foreballs and a wild pitch led to a no-out second base and third base, he lost one run on the second wild pitch of the inning.
He then threw out a foreball to first and third base, and while striking out the fifth batter into a double play, the third base runner came back and scored two runs.
In the fifth and sixth innings, he walked off the mound with three walks.
Fujinami's final pitch in the opener was six innings, throwing 6 pitches and giving up two runs, although he didn't get a hit.
While he played his role as a starting pitcher, he also recorded four foreballs, one dead ball, and three wild pitches, leaving control issues.
The Athletics announced that Fujinami's first big league pitch will be against the Angels on the 90st of next month, the second game of the season, and he is expected to face batter Ohtani.
Fujinami threw against Ohtani when he pitched for the first time in the opening game on the 2th of last month, but this time there was no match because Ohtani was concentrating on pitching.
Ohtani, who is scheduled to pitch at the same time as the season opener on March 4, is scheduled to play as the designated hitter for the game on the first day of next month, and it is expected that the two players of the same grade will face a high-profile matchup immediately after the start of the season.
Fujinami "I will do my best to restrain Otani"
After the final pitch of the opener, Fujinami said, "I wouldn't have said it without the fourth inning, but overall I think it was good. I'm glad we were able to fix it."
On top of that, he was eager to make his first big league pitch in six days, saying, "I want to take the plunge while feeling the joy of throwing on the spot, and I want to solidify my skills so that I can throw confidently on the mound and practice well for a week."
Regarding the match against Otani, he said, "It's better to hold back, but even if I get hit, I hope the team wins, but I think there are Japan who are looking forward to it, so I will do my best to keep it down as much as possible."