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Tigers first out of the gate

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The Hot Corner for April 11, 2002

Talk about a fast start. The Hanshin Tigers sprinted out of the gate like their uniforms were on fire. Their 7-0 start was the club's first since the Japan League played two seasons a year, one in the spring and one in the fall, back when Korea was a part of the Japanese empire.

There's nothing like a competitive Tigers team to liven up a season and last weekend was proof as Tokyo's Jingu Stadium did a very creditable imitation of Koshien with Tigers fans filling nearly every seat from behind home to the center field scoreboard.

It was a sad Sunday afternoon when their club lost 5-3 to the Swallows and failed to set a franchise record for most consecutive wins at the beginning of a season. Until Sunday, the club's middle relievers had hardly been tested as manager Senichi Hoshino got one solid performance after another from his starting pitchers.

But after another great effort on Sunday from rookie Yuya Ando, relievers Takahito Kanazawa and Shoji Toyama got rocked, costing Ando a win in his pro debut.

Although the 24-year-old, who joined the Tigers as a free selection in last Fall's draft didn't have any unkind words in public about his teammates, the NHK camera caught a glare that lowered the temperature in the Tigers dugout by several degrees.

Ando had a similar look for Shinjiro Hiyama when the right fielder lost an easy fly in the sun and nearly dropped it. If looks could kill, the Tigers would have had to scramble to fill up their 28-man active roster in time for last Tuesday's home opener.

Ando had two first-rate pitches on Sunday, a running fastball, known as a shoot in Japan, a slider that really darts. His shoot runs in on right-handed hitters while his slider made right-handed hitters miss so badly that they looked as if they couldn't hit the ball if it were on a tee.

To make things worse he has a lively 145-kph fastball and a big curve. And though his fastball was around 142 kph all day and his curve got him into trouble more than it helped. Since several scouting reports on Ando mentioned his fastball and curve as his best assets, CL batters may be in for a rough ride--that is if Ando can save his contempt for the opposition and learn to get along with his teammates.

Sunday's game was the finale of a three-game series and when Ando was announced as the starter, Swallows hitters were probably relieved to get a pitcher who doesn't throw a change-up.

Kei Igawa, Friday's starter, and Trey Moore, who started Saturday, are both masters of baseball's second to least appreciated pitch--the award for the most underrated pitch goes to the knuckle ball.

Igawa throws his by wrapping the ball in his palm and throwing it like a fastball. It is essentially a palm ball, a cousin of the knuckler.

On Sunday, catcher Akihiro Yano tried to explain the difference between
Moore's change of pace and Igawa's.

"Moore's gives you the feeling that it rises just for an instant and then drops," said Yano. "Igawa's comes straight just like a fastball and then it sinks."

On Friday, Yano was scrambling and diving in the dirt all night to keep Igawa's change-up from getting past him and managed to get through the evening with just one wild pitch and one passed ball.

"There were a lot that came in on a hop," said Yano. "Because Igawa's (change-ups) move so much, they are hard to catch. But if you don't call for them, you can't stop the opposition so you can't be afraid (of having them get past you)."

Moore, who's real name is Warren, has more idiosyncrasies than any pitcher since Fernando Valenzuela. He sets on the third-base side of the rubber and throws anywhere from three-quarters overhand to side arm.

Trey, so called because he's the third Warren in his family after his dad and grandfather, has a pitch labeled a "super secret slider" by some media people. Keeping in the spirit, Moore refused to divulge how many different release points he has.

"It's a secret," he said.

Because he doesn't know?

"That could be it," he said with a laugh. "Some times I think I'm releasing up here, and it's down here. Some times it's the other way around."

On Tuesday, the Tigers found themselves at home for the first time since the preseason. And though the team has become accustomed to winning playing at home was a special event.

"I was more nervous tonight than I was on opening day," new manager Senichi Hoshino was quoted by Jiji Press as saying after the game. "It was a strange kind of nervousness. I absolutely wanted to win.

"If we had lost, people would have thought 'What a bunch of fakes.'"

And though eight wins cuts little ice in a 140-game season, it's eight games they don't have to win later on.

The Hot Corner appears each Thursday in The Daily Yomiuri .
 

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