Sasaki

Argh! I watched both of them live on TV.

In the first game, he struck out Inoue to lead off the bottom of the 9th at Nagoya Dome. He looked like the Sasaki of old. But then Tanishige singled to left and M. Takahashi followed with a gyaku-ten sayonara home run. Aaaaaa.

Then, with the wife trying to pull me away from the TV to go shopping yesterday evening, Sasaki got the first two outs really quick. "All right, we just need one more out." My wife saw it was Sasaki and said off hand, "He'll blow it again." Soon after that, Hanshin's Machida and Akahoshi hit back to back singles, pinch runner Shuta moving to third on Akahoshi's single up the middle. Akahoshi then stole second without a throw. Then Fujimoto singled to left plating Shuta from third and Akahoshi from second for the sayonara defeat. "All right. Let's go shopping."

The only other appearance this season for Sasaki was the day after the gyaku-ten sayonara home run against Chunichi. The BayStars were blowing out the Dragons in that one 14-6. He struck out Mori, the only batter he faced. That was supposed to rebuild his confidence. I guess seven days after that was too long.

Today's Nikkan Sports (April 11) has Sasaki's results since last August, just before going on the DL. On August 4 he blew a 4-3 game at Nagoya Dome without retiring a single batter, losing 4-5. He allowed the tying run in the top of the 9th against Yakult at Yokohama Stadium on August 7, the Stars losing that one in the 10th. Then with a 2-0 lead against Yakult the next night, Sasaki gave up those three consecutive solo home runs to Dobashi, Iwamura, and Furuta with one out before striking out Suzuki and Ramirez, getting the loss. Sasaki wasn't seen again until the above game at Nagoya Dome on April 2.

For 5-oku yen, Sasaki had better return to form soon.

Yes, it was sad to see for Sasaki's sake. Not really - as a Tigers fan I thought it was rather good.

But you know, Yano was unlucky not to have helped himself to a double to start that inning. The outfielder barely got to it, and so Sasaki looked shaky from the start. He always looked as if he was going to blow it. I was actually quite relaxed about the whole thing.

I got Sasaki at 6.5 oku-en, so he is going to have to pitch even better.