[新聞] But did he throw a gyroball?
But did he throw a gyroball?
http://www.oxfordpress.com/sports/content/shared/sports/stories/2007/BBO_MARLINS_0307_COX.html
By TOM D'ANGELO
Cox News Service
Wednesday, March 07, 2007
JUPITER, Fla. — Jason Stokes insists he saw it. Joe Borchard described it,
but wasn't sure what it was.
So the legend of the gyroball grows — if there is a gyroball.
No batter has ever claimed to see the mystifying pitch supposedly thrown by
Boston Red Sox phenom Daisuke Matsuzaka. Even Matsuzaka, the Japanese
superstar known as Dice-K off the pronunciation of his first name, is vague
about the pitch.
But Tuesday, in Matsuzaka's first game against a major-league team, he just
might have delivered a pitch with a dash of Wasabi.
"I saw the gyroball,'' said Stokes, the Marlins' first baseman who was one of
three strikeout victims in Matsuzaka's three shutout innings of Boston's 14-6
win at Roger Dean Stadium.
Stokes, a minor leaguer for the past six years, said Matsuzaka gripped the
ball like a two-seam fastball, then let loose an unusual pitch.
"It's like a split-finger — downward angle, maybe runs in a little bit,"
said Stokes, who took the pitch for a 3-2 count before striking out on a
slider.
Stokes' revelation stirred up the Matsuzaka media mob — about 100 Japanese
journalists who descended on Roger Dean along with a partisan Red Sox crowd
of 8,044 to watch Dice-K throw 47 pitches, including 31 for strikes, and
allow two hits and one walk.
The gyroball was created on a computer by a Japanese baseball trainer, who
projected the path and movement of the pitch that Matsuzaka is said to
sometimes use.
Some say the gyroball acts like a change-up and dips away from right-handed
batters. Others say it's more like a slider with an abrupt turn and dip. The
consensus is it's a little of both, but everyone agrees that the pitch spins
sideways.
"I saw a pitch with that kind of rotation," Stokes confirmed.
Borchard walked in his one at-bat against Matsuzaka and described two pitches
that were sort of like change-ups, but not really.
Could they have been gyroballs?
"What is a gyroball?'' Borchard repled.
Given a brief description, Borchard said that Matsuzaka "had some good
movement,'' on the pitches. Then, as if he were a confused camper asked one
more time about a possible Big Foot sighting, Borchard surmised that, yes, he
might have seen a gyroball or two.
On the subject of Matsuzaka's more mundane pitches, Borchard called the
6-foot, 190-pound right-hander's fastball "sneaky'' and his slider "sharp.''
Gyroball or not, Marlins second baseman Dan Uggla is a believer.
"He's definitely got the ability to be a dominant pitcher," said Uggla, who
became the first major-leaguer to get a hit off Matsuzaka, a first-inning
single on a 1-2 count.
"He's got the stuff. He's got the command."
Matsuzaka pitched out of a jam in the second inning after John Gall's double
put Marlins on second and third. Scott Seabol then struck out on a slider and
Eric Reed popped out to first on a bunt attempt.
"This being my first year, I'm trying to focus on if I allow a runner to get
on base to keep them there and not allow them to score," Matsuzaka said
through an interpreter.
Red Sox catcher Jason Varitek liked what he saw in Dice-K's debut.
"He's progressing like all the other pitchers," Varitek said. "He made some
really good pitches, threw some good sliders."
But did he throw a gyroball?
Tom D'Angelo writes for the Palm Beach Post.
--
在奇怪的時刻突然想寫blog
http://chordate.blogspot.com/
--
※ 發信站: 批踢踢實業坊(ptt.cc)
◆ From: 220.135.3.133
Asian-MLB 近期熱門文章
PTT體育區 即時熱門文章