Uehara’s Final Yomiuri Appearance?
I had to work late on Wednesday; late enough to catch the first couple of innings of Game 5 of the Japan Series, which was started by MLB-bound Koji Uehara. Uehara clearly didn’t have his best stuff — his breaking pitches were flat and he left several out over the plate. The Lions took advantage, cranking out seven hits in their first 17 at-bats. Hara removed Uehara after three innings of work, for a final line of:
| IP | Batters Faced | NP | Hits | HR | K | BB | R | ER |
| 3 | 17 | 52 | 7 | 0 | 4 | 0 | 2 | 1 |
Uehara got himself in to and out of jams in the 1st and 3rd innings and limited the damage by avoiding walks and home runs, but was otherwise pretty hittable. The Yomiuri relievers shut down the Lions down the rest of the way, as the Giants came back to win and take a 3-2 series lead.
Game 5 was probably the last time we’ll see Uehara pitch for the Giants. I’m holding out a little hope that the Giants will find a way to get him in to game 6 or 7 as a reliever, but with a deep bullpen that’s not likely unless we see extra innings. I think he can go out on a higher note than than this.
07/11/2008 at 10:05 am Permalink
At his current fitness, it doesn’t look like Uehara would be capable of pitching every 5 days in the majors. Anyways, hopefully the Lions can outhit the Giants on Saturday, because they sure as hell don’t have a shutdown pitcher available to start the game, but stranger things have happened in baseball.
07/11/2008 at 10:45 am Permalink
Yeah, I see Uehara as more of a swingman type in MLB.
The Giants are scheduled to have Takahashi start game 6, and I’m not a huge fan of his. I’m just hoping to see seven games in this Series.