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| Yusei Kikuchi, I say pitch (in the mode of the great Maureen Konnyu) |
We knew Yusei Kikuchi (菊池 雄星, Kikuchi Yūsei) was capable of extraordinary variability on the level of the season (an All-Star one moment, out of the rotation entirely the next), but it would seem that he is capable of a variability no less extraordinary on the level of the game, the inning, the at-bat, and quite possibly even during the brief instant during which each individual pitch is itself in flight (our people are still working on this). It's gonna be a wild ride! And I am here for it, if the results are leaping Lourdes Gurriel Jr. catches at the wall, and/or Téo throwing Josh Donaldson out at the plate under truly baffling circumstances (from a dead stop at third to a mad dash home to be out by a mile? okay cool, JD!), and four runs against (three earned) altogether on the night after a nice effort from the pen. Much attention was paid in the immediate aftermath of this game to the extent to which Kikuchi got knocked around -- and quite rightly so, as it was truly remarkable just how hard he was hit, given that the results were not, in the end, that bad -- but it really doesn't much matter anyway if the bats are this cold (five hits, only two 2-0 counts all night) against the crafty (perhaps the craftmost) lefty Nestor Cortes, does it? Ah, but if Matt Chapman had homered! I'd be all "Chapman's homer! Stout Cortez! I say 'poems,' you say 'Keats!'" and we would have had such a time together. Ah well.
KS
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