Kiyohara HBP, Out for 3 Weeks

Nippon Ham starting pitcher Yu Darvish hit Orix Buffaloes' Kazuhiro Kiyohara on the left hand in the Buffaloes' half of the first inning in Thursday's (April 20) game. The injury was feared to be in the same place as a fracture received on June 19, 2004 by Hanshin's Yuya Andoh that put Kiyohara out of action for 3 months. As it turns out, though, the 138 kph pitch will just bench the Dead Ball King for just 3 weeks this time.

Kiyohara has been hit by 196 pitches in his career, more than anybody else in Pro Yakyu history. Home Run King Sadaharu Oh ranks 8th with 114 dead balls. Oh-kantoku commented that in his time it was the person who didn't avoid the ball that was bad (with it being unavoidable in critical situations).

I've never seen Kiyohara charge the mound, but I have seen him take a step or to in that direction and have a few words with the pitcher. Nikkan Sports reports that Kiyohara was penalized for violence after being hit by Lotte's Sadaharu Hiranuma in 1989, after which he's gone 18 years without a confrontation. However, there has been quite a bit of commentary from Kiyohara published the past couple of days about him seriously considering charging the mound, "an eye for an eye," "one's got to fight for what's important."

Darvish, after a sleepless night from hearing about Kiyohara's injury and desire to charge the mound, said, "I'm a professional player and had that kind of control miss.... For now, I would just like to apologize."