Japanese pitcher Shintaro Fujinami (29, Oakland Athletics) has thrown five consecutive scoreless innings in the big leagues.
Trailing 10-3 in the bottom of the eighth inning against the Boston Red Sox at Fenway Park in Massachusetts, USA, on 9 September, Fujinami pitched one inning of one-hit ball with one strikeout. Taking the mound with the score wide open, he gave up a single to Alex Verdugo two batters later, but got Tristan Casas to fly out to left field to end the inning without allowing a run. Fujinami, who hasn’t allowed a run in five straight games dating back to last month’s 29th against the New York Yankees, has lowered his ERA to 9.14 (9.35 before the game).먹튀검증
It’s a stark difference from earlier in the season. In his first start against the Los Angeles Angels on 2 April, Fujinami gave up eight runs on five hits in two and a third innings, raising his ERA to 30.86. Since then, he has been used as a swingman between the mound and the bullpen, but has struggled to get his ERA into the single digits. He finally lowered his ERA to 9.80 with a one-hit shutout against the Chicago White Sox on the 1st, and has been steadily lowering it ever since. In his last seven games (one start), he is 2-1 with a 2.25 ERA and a 1.00 WHIP. His fastball reached a whopping 102 mph (164.2 km/h) against Boston.Fujinami is no stranger to Korean baseball fans as a rival of fellow Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB) starter Shohei Ohtani (Los Angeles Angels), who joined the Angels in 2013. He signed with Oakland last winter on a one-year, $3.3 million (3.9 billion won) short-term deal, and all eyes were on him to see how he would fare in fulfilling his dream of making it to the big leagues. But he self-destructed in an exhibition game, striking out 17 in 18 and two-thirds innings.
He started the opener but was eventually relegated to the bullpen due to poor command of his pitches, and the “walks=runs” formula continued. His self-destruction on the mound began to rebound in July. In three appearances in July, he went 2-0 with an ERA of ‘0’ (3 innings, 1 hit, 6 strikeouts, no runs).