Third baseman splits outfield… Bauer lucky to go ‘159km’ on Ducks’ worst defense in 3 wins
Yokohama DeNA BayStars pitcher Trevor Bauer picked up his third win of the season.
Bauer pitched seven innings, allowing two runs (one earned) on five hits (one home run) with nine strikeouts and four walks against the Orix Buffaloes of Nippon Professional Baseball 2023 at the Kyocera Dome in Osaka, Japan, on Monday. Bauer’s fastball topped out at 159 mph to lead the team to a 4-2 victory and his third win of the season.
On the mound for the Oryx was “The Unstoppable” Shunpeita Yamashita, who was 5-0 with a 0.84 ERA in seven starts prior to the game. It was a tough matchup for Bauer, who had an ERA over 5 in his previous five starts, but he was able to utilize his changeup to get through the inning. Yamashita suffered his first loss of the season, allowing four runs (two earned) in six innings.
Bauer lowered his season ERA from 5.59 to 4.75 with the win. However, she did not allow a run in any game since joining the organization (six games). Bauer has allowed 11 home runs in seven games 안전놀이터.
After Maki Shogo led off the second inning with a double to left field, Tyler Austin followed with an RBI double to center field to give Yokohama the lead. However, Bauer gave up a leadoff single to Keita Nakagawa and then stole second base. With two outs, the catcher’s fastball got away, allowing the runner from second to score and tie the game at 1-1.
In the bottom of the fourth, Bauer threw a high 127-kilometer knuckle curveball to leadoff hitter Yuma Tongu for a solo shot to left field to make it 1-2.
Yokohama’s comeback began in the top of the sixth. After walks to Takuma Hayashi and Daiki Sekiya put runners on first and second, Maki singled to left. The third baseman caught the fly ball in left field and threw to second base, but the ball got away from him, splitting the right-center field wall. As the outfielders scrambled to retrieve the ball, all three runners came home, making it a three-run game.
Bauer entered the game in the bottom of the sixth with a 4-2 lead and loaded the bases on a shortstop error, but he got Marwin Gonzalez to ground out to first base to end the inning.
After throwing 95 pitches in the sixth inning, Bauer returned for the seventh. Bauer gave up a leadoff double to Takumasa Kurebayashi to center and a single to left by Daishi Hirooka to put runners on first and third. Bauer got Tomoya Noguchi to fly out to center field to end the inning. He threw 108 pitches.
Bauer pitched seven innings of one-run ball on the day, but the defense didn’t help him early in the game, and he seemed to be far from the win column as hitters were stymied by the pitcher and couldn’t provide any run support. However, an unfortunate error by the opposition gave his team the lead and the win.
Bauer made his major league debut in 2012 and was one of the best starting pitchers in baseball, earning an American League All-Star selection in 2018 and a National League Cy Young Award in 2020. In his major league career, Bauer is 83-69 with a 3.79 ERA in 222 games (212 starts).
He signed a three-year, $120 million contract with the Los Angeles Dodgers in 2021, but was suspended for two seasons in April of last year after going on trial for sexual assault. His suspension was reduced to 194 games on appeal, but the Dodgers released him in January of this year. Bauer joined Yokohama in March and has been a starting pitcher.