The Hot Corner spoke to Yamamoto at Seibu Dome on Saturday and asked him whether his guys were for real.
"The pitchers are," Yamamoto said. "We are getting the kind of pitching throughout the staff that we expected."
Tomohiro "Johnny" Kuroki has gotten most of the headlines with his eye-catching start--he won his first nine games and missed a chance at a 10th when he was knocked out by a line drive to the leg at Tokyo Dome. But the Marines pitching staff has been more than just Kuroki.
The rest of the starting rotation has been more than capable with last year's star Shingo Ono (6-3, 3.40 ERA) and Nate Minchey (7-7, 3.94 ERA) chewing up innings. Rookie Kosuke Kato was off to a hot start and has since cooled off.
Yamamoto says he's ready to pick up where he left off in April, when he went 2-2 with a 3.45 ERA. Since May 1, Kato's ERA is 6.75 in 30 2/3 innings. The youngster has been striking out batters more and more often--a good sign--but opposing hitters have really been taking him deep--not such a good sign.
The beating that the Lions dealt him last Sunday suggests that Kato's rebound is still in the works.
In the Marines bullpen, the big name has been Masahide Kobayashi, who took the closer job away from Brian Warren last season. Kobayashi notched his Japan-best 18th save on Tuesday as the Marines bounced back from a pair of shutout losses at Seibu Dome over the weekend.
At one point, Kobayashi picked up a save in six straight days, making one wonder if the Marines' hammer might fail in the second half due to overuse.
"As for the six games, I didn't want to use him in every game," said Yamamoto of his gun slinger in the bullpen. "It's just the way each game developed. They all turned into close games. In the final game, we had the next day off, so I was thinking about that."
But after all that work, Yamamoto was a little hesitant to call on Kobayashi again when Kuroki's ninth win was on the line.
"And when Johnny pitched the other day (and the Marines were leading 5-4 in the late innings) I called the bullpen to see if he was OK to pitch and he said he was.
"So I went out to the mound and told Johnny that he (Kobayashi) was
going to come in but Johnny was concerned too. So we re-checked with the
bullpen and Kobayashi repeated that he was fine to go out. Upon hearing
that Johnny said, 薫K' and came out of the game after the eighth inning."
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"The batting has been good but we are still waiting for (third baseman Kiyoshi) Hatsushiba to come around. So we're not really where we ant to be," Yamamoto said.
Hatsushiba, who said he was really in the dumps as he struggled offensively and the team playing so well, was deactivated on Monday and replaced on the active roster by veteran slugger Hiroo Ishii.
For much of the early going, Yamamoto had been critical of his team's inability to achieve the critical hits needed to sink opposing squads. But the timely hitting has now become more regular and according to Yamamoto, it's the guys in the middle of the lineup who have been the catalysts.
"(Kazuya) Fukuura, Bolick and May are amazing," said Yamamoto.
Second baseman Koichi Hori voiced the same opinion about Bolick and May. "Those two guys are really doing their job and it affects everyone around them," Hori said.
Hori, who missed much of camp with a reoccurrence of the lower back troubles that have plagued him throughout his career has also made an impact.
Shuttled in recent years from short to second to the outfield and back to second again, he is more than happy to be home, agreeing that he feels more comfortable there than anywhere else.
Having Hori healthy allowed Yamamoto to send Saburo Omura back to the outfield, where Omura is more accustomed to playing.
Saburo, who tried to make the move to second this season in Hori's absence, was red hot when the season opened. Yamamoto says that despite Omura's athleticism, the conversion was taking its toll on the youngster.
"At second, he had to think about his defense a lot as well as his hitting, and it was affecting his batting."
And while Omura could play second well enough to hold the job if he produced as well as he's capable of at the plate, he stopped producing.
"He's our No. 1 outfielder," Yamamoto said. "So were lucky to have him there. (The move) wasn't a big success, but he can play the position. I won't say that I will never send him back to second because you never know what's going to happen."
And there's no way of telling where the Marines will finish in the pennant race when the dust clears. But one things for certain, they will give their loyal fans a lot to cheer about between now and then.
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As it is, Hori is glad to give the fans a good show.
"They are the best," he said of fanatical Marines support group. "Most places we go, except Fukuoka, there are more fans over here (pointing to the left field seating, where the visiting team's supporters mass) than over there."
And the fans have also been more numerous at home with the club drawing in 10 percent more than a year ago.
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Reader Biff, a loyal supporter of the Oakland A's, would like it known that Oakland's attendance did not drop every year during their dynasty of the early 1970s, as stated in The Hot Corner of May 31.
During the five seasons that the A's won the AL West, their attendance grew slightly and they had one horrible year. In 1974, the season the A's won their third straight World Series, their attendance was 11th in the 12-team American League and 22nd among 24 major league teams. Their cross-bay NL rivals, the Giants, drew fewer fans than anyone that year.
Reader Biff recommended that The Hot Corner "pick on" fans of the Braves, who couldn't be bothered to pack their stadium during playoff games in recent years.
But this writer doesn't pick on fans.
People who pay to watch ball games are consumers. And when they choose to spend their time and money elsewhere it doesn't make them bad fans. It means that teams have not marketed their product well enough.
It's up to the teams to get the fans in the door and keep them coming back.
The Hot Corner appears each Thursday in The Daily Yomiuri .