Uehara Watch

9th Inning Koji.

Apparently, the Giants are going to work Uehara back into the rotation by pitching him one inning at a time. For the second consecutive day the man of the hour entered a game more or less decided to get in a little work. Today, Uehara induced pinch hitter Hidenori to ground out to short, followed by leadoff man Ibata's ground out to third, and finally Araki duplicated the feat by weakly dribbling a grounder to Ogasawara at the hot corner for the final out of the game.

Uehara was more than economical, sitting down the Dragons 1-2-3 on 7 pitches. It's good to see him back on the mound finally, and I expect you'll see more quality work the rest of the way. Since there's not much to write about the latest one inning audition, I'll give you the breakdown on each of those batters.

Hidenori (.273/.250/.273 - 12 plate appearances)
1st pitch: 88mph fastball down the middle (out G6-3)

Ibata (.299/.380/.430 - 123 plate appearances)
1st pitch: 80mph cutter low and inside (ball one)
2nd pitch: 88mph fastball in (foul)
3rd pitch: 86mph shuuto away (out G5-3)

Araki (.243/.270/.279 - 119 plate appearances)
1st pitch: 75mph forkball low (ball one)
2nd pitch: 80mph forkball high (strike one)
3rd pitch: 81mph cutter in (out G5-3)

None of the speeds will knock your socks off, but that's Uehara. He puts pitches in spots you can't hit. I expect to see him get a few more innings like this before taking the mound for a start, but the Giants will probably fool me again by starting him tomorrow. Who knows? I'll be there when he pitches though. Stay tuned!

posted by Mike Plugh @ 6:41 AM