My name is Peter Schiller. I am the creator/owner of Baseball Reflections.com. I’m also a contributing writer. To read more of my work here at Baseball Reflections just click HERE!
I am also affiliated with a great cause, a children's book with a great message called, "A Glove of Their Own". For every purchase of this great book using the promotional code WBO, a $3.00 donation will be made when purchased through the Franklin Mason Press website for World Baseball Outreach at checkout. You can purchase a copy by following the link at their website www.agloveoftheirown.com
LA Story: Almost Perfect
Peter Schiller | Jul 09, 2008 | Comments 0
On Monday night, first year Dodger pitcher Hiroki Kuroda needed only 91 pitches to complete a shutout of Chipper Jones, Mark Teixeira, Brian McCann and the Atlanta Braves. In fact, he came 6 outs away from a perfect game until Mark Teixeira doubled to lead off the 8th inning ( a solid hit by the way). Kuroda followed up that at bat by slamming the door on the remaining six batters, with a little help from his friends behind him, to finish his second complete game shutout of the season.
What makes this impressive to me is that he accomplished this feat with under 100 pitches (91 to be exact). That’s an utterly dominating performance in my book.
What’s even more amazing is that he’s in his first year playing in the US. This off season, the Dodgers claimed the Japanese free agent, making him a MLB rookie in 2008. If you take into account the change in culture, size difference in the ball between the US & Japan (Boston’s Daisuke Matsuzaka and Hideki Okajima both mentioned this last year) and you have a player who can defy the odds.
Kuroda was a good Japanese player, but not in the same stratosphere as Matsuzaka according to the hype we saw last year in Boston. Personally, I like an underdog and between the two (Matsuzaka and Kuroda), Kuroda would be that underdog, so rooting for him to complete the perfect game was easy. Unlike the predicament I had to be in when I heard about David Wells’ perfect game as a member of the Yankees back in 1998 (I don’t much like Wells).
I even stayed up to after 12:30am to find out the outcome of this one while I watched the MLB Gamecast.
For a good article on this game, please read Doug Padilla’s article from asahi.com by clicking HERE (yes, it’s in English).
What are your thoughts about this complete game shutout by Hiroki Kuroda?
Help support Baseball Reflections and buy me a coffee with PayPal!Popularity: 3% [?]
Related posts:
- Former Phillies Player, Dave Hollins, Tell His Diabetes Story
- Yesterday, Buehrle Was Perfect!
- Help Your Young Hitter Learn the Perfect Swing With These 5 Drills
- The Giants pitching needs to be perfect in 2009
- The Bob Feller Story: A DVD Review
Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.
If you want to contribute to our first annual pledge drive, please make your donations below:
Filed Under: Baseball • Breaking News • Fantasy Baseball • Pete’s Perspective
