[新聞] Okajima drops bomb on Yankees
http://soxblog.projo.com/2009/06/okajima-drops-b.html
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BOSTON _ When the always reserve Hideki Okajima shows any kind of emotion on
the mound it can only mean good things.
The Red Sox' lefty reliever did a few outstanding things against the New York
Yankees Wednesday night at Fenway Park. Basically, he was unhittable. Okajima
worked 1 1/3 scoreless innings and did not allow a hit, while walking one
with three strikeouts.
With the Sox holding a one-run lead and a runner on second in the top of the
eighth inning, he struck out Derek Jeter and Johnny Damon to secure Boston's
slime advantage. When he threw strike three past Damon, Okajima pounded his
mitt with his fist.
"I was excited because I was able to get out of the jam," he said. "I am very
satisfied with the way I threw. My command was good and my changeup was good
- everything was working fine."
Okajima entered the game with two outs in the seventh inning after reliever
Ramon Ramirez had already surrendered back-to-back solo homers to Damon and
Mark Teixeira.
New York was still threatening when Posada provided a two-out single. That
was the end of the night for Ramirez as Francona brought Okajima to face the
always-dangerous Hideki Matsui.
Okajima won the battle over his former Japanese teammate with a strikeout.
"It doesn't matter who it is, I just go out there and get the hitters out,"
Okajima said.
Okajima continued to dominate in the eighth inning after he issued a leadoff
walk to Nick Swisher. Brett Gardner was inserted as a pinch-runner, and
reached second on a sacrifice bunt by Melky Cabrera. The Sox' southpaw
settled down and struck out Jeter and Damon to end the threat and the inning.
"It was huge for Okajima to get those two strikeouts there in the eighth with
a runner on," said Red Sox starter Tim Wakefield, who improves to 8-3.
Okajima said he didn't expect to face the right-handed hitting Jeter to begin
with given the matchup. Francona could have gone with Jonathan Papelbon, who
dealt with a bout of food poisoning the last two days, or Takashi Saito, but
the manager stuck with the overpowering Okajima.
He accepted the challenge.
"I wanted to show what I can do," he said. "And I was able to get the hitters
out, and I'm very happy about it. More importantly, I didn't want to erase
Wakefield's 'W' because he was so good."
While Papelbon recorded his 15th save of the season, he put all the spotlight
on Okajima's outing.
"By far, no questions asked, Hideki was our star of the game. He came in and
basically took over the ballgame and did what he did," Papelbon said. "That's
the big reason we won the game tonight - no doubt about it. He pitched great
tonight."
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06/12 01:32, , 1F
06/12 01:32, 1F
※ 編輯: Westmoreland 來自: 118.160.66.72 (06/12 04:41)
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