Shintaro Fujinami (Oakland Athletics) has already suffered his 5th loss of the season.
Fujinami pitched in relief in the 8th inning of the 2023 MLB home game against the Arizona Diamondbacks held at Ring Central Coliseum in the United States on the 18th, and recorded a loss with 1 hit, 2 walks and 2 runs in 2/3 innings.
Fujinami recorded 1 win and 5 losses in the season. His earned run average went from 12.24 to 12.62 for the worse.
In the beginning of the 8th inning when the score was tied 3-3, Fujinami made a relief mound with 2 out on 2nd and 3rd base, striking out 4th batter Christian Walker and put out the fire in a hurry. However, he collapsed in the top of the ninth. Fujinami, who gave up a double to lead hitter Lourdes Gurriel Jr., caused the bases loaded crisis by intentionally 4 pitches and a walk after one out.
The Oakland bench then replaced the mound with Adrian Martinez. Since then, two successive runners have homered, and both have resulted in Fujinami’s own runs. Arizona lost 3-5.
During his high school years, Fujinami formed a rivalry with Otani (LA Angels), who made a name for himself as the best prospect pitcher. He even competed in the World Youth Baseball Championship in Seoul in 2012 as a ‘one-two punch’ for the Japanese youth team. After joining the prestigious Hanshin Tigers, Fujinami won more than 10 victories for three consecutive years, but his performance declined after that. The gap with Ohtani also widened.
After recording 57 wins and 54 losses with an ERA of 3.41 on the Japanese stage, Fujinami succeeded in entering the MLB this year through a private competitive bidding (posting system). However, it was not a good condition to agree to a contract of 3.25 million dollars (4.3 billion won) for one year. 메이저놀이터
Fujinami raised expectations by recording 3 wins and an average ERA of 3.86 in five demonstration games. After opening, however, he recorded losses in all four of his starts. He gave up 24 runs (14.40 earned run average) while pitching 16 innings in 4 total games.
Even after he changed his position to reliever, his sluggishness continues. He also has an average earned run average of 11.17 (1 win, 1 loss) in the bullpen.
Fujinami is allowing close to one walk per inning. His on-base percentage (WHIP) per inning is 2.14.
Oakland, which belongs to the American League West, has the lowest win rate (0.222, 10 wins, 35) among the 30 MLB teams. The total number of spectators who visited the home stadium of Auckland that day was only 4,159.