I Faced Shohei Ohtani’s Old Team… And Shoved!

I Faced Shohei Ohtani’s Old Team… And Shoved!

All right, so we start this cycle tied for first in starts, five innings behind the leader in innings pitched, second in the league in strikeouts. That’s going well. What’s not going well is the ERA, obviously. I’m 3.3. The leader is at 89. Uh he’s also the leader in innings pitched and strikeouts, which is crazy. I’m seventh in the league in complete games. Sucks. The last two games I’ve only gone eight when they could have been complete games, but we didn’t have a lead. And I don’t know where I am in wins. I got three leaders at seven. So, we got some work to do still, but uh but my next outing coming up is against the Fighters. That’s Otani’s old team and they are in first place. They’re actually best record in the entire league. That’ll be a tough one. Uh be a good matchup. Inner league play. Never pitched against them before. They’ve never seen me before. But I got to learn their team. I don’t know anything about them. I don’t know if they hit homers, if they try to launch, if they steal, slap. So, I got to watch a bunch of games and see what they do. Uh clearly, they’re doing something right. I know they pitch really well. probably going to be another, you know, zero zero game in the late innings. Hopefully, if I can do my job right now, I’m just getting my bicep in for the elbow. Make sure I can recover getting my scap work in as well. Going to put a big emphasis this week on lengthening that side of things. So, it was kind of like right up in here and it was just tight. It’s basically like doesn’t bother me when I throw, but when I take my arm overhead and bend my tricep, when I’m here, no problem. But as soon as I bend my arm, I get to about here and I feel tightness starting to develop right here. And then my arm wants to come down instead of being able to stay all the way up overhead. So got some needles in there yesterday after the start, which seems to really helped. Um, but I got to make sure that I’m getting my scap work in to put my shoulder in a good position. Got to lengthen this area, but I also got to activate it. So I got to get into these like extended positions and do some pullovers. I’m going to try that with the lats today. Dre ruined my day this morning, though. He told me that uh we don’t have to hit in inner league play and I got super excited and then he’s like oh well that’s if you pitch on the road and I get all home games outside of one which means I have to hit all of inner league. Drives me nuts. It’s like cost me like three complete games already. It’s so annoying. I would literally be leading the league in complete games if I didn’t have to hit. So part of this uh tricep lat thing is this exercise. Contrabanded dead bug. I don’t know why Tim names it this but this is what it’s called. Working on two things. is you’re going to be pressing your lower back into the ground so you have a flat arch like you don’t want any like arching right here. You got the mini band around your legs and maintain this 90° angle right here and then arms up. And you’re just going to switch or go with opposites, but you can’t lose the uh the pressure with the low back. First strength movement of the day is a split stance deadlift. Make sure to set the core, good position there, maintain that and then just lift as fast as possible. combo that today with a banded lateral bound, which I can actually do band around the waist. We’re going to be bounding this way. So, you want to get a lot of tension. It’s an over speed drill. Normally, I would have a band pulling me and I would do like three repeated bounds, but just going to break it up into three individual bounds. Nice. We got a split stance cable row. Explosive. I’m going to try to follow the same path, but just fast. [Applause] Don’t want to pull and have my shoulder roll forward. So, I’m trying to squeeze the scap and maintain that good position, but also do it explosively. Opposite of that, obviously, if you’re in a split stance doing a pull, we’re going to be in a split stance doing a push. One of my favorite ones. I’m actually going to do this with my lead leg almost straight. So, lock out and then bend just a little bit. So, you’re pressing with this back and you’re pressing with this forward. It’s so interesting when I do the lateral bounce. I’m so much stronger at pushing off on my right side even though my left leg is way stronger. And my left leg is so much better at blocking than my right. Like my right whenever I have to block on my right, it’s like I don’t know how to do it. Like it doesn’t straighten at all. So my left leg is way stronger because of all the eccentric loading and blocking and stabilization. My right is so much better at pushing off because that’s kind of what I do on the mound. So my body is just trained to only move one way and when I have to do something else it’s like oh reminds me very quickly. Yeah. You are not an athlete. Just gonna finish out with a uh overhead pullover. Tiny little kettle bell here. 8 kilos. So like 17 18 lbs. Basically feeling straight arm max extension of the lat and pullover. And there’s really not a whole lot there. Although feel a little bit. So, we definitely have a little bit of lat here. Probably mostly tricep. I think it’s long head of the tricep, but a little bit of lat, but that means that I need to lengthen the lat, but I need to lengthen the tricep mainly. So, that’s going to be like rolling like a lacrosse ball, broomstick, manual therapy, and then I got to lengthen it. So, that’s going to be some stretching, some like overhead uh band work. Uh band pulling me back this way, getting a nice stretch right there. and I need to activate from that position. So, I probably need to have a light band pulling me back here and then just do some tricep extensions. It’s not a problem, but uh early warning signs of a problem. And it’s critical to be proactive about those warning signs so 21, and 3 on the year, which was good enough to be back in second place. Today’s a very sad day. After nearly 5 years, Oklahoma softball will not be defending national champions. They’ve been eliminated from the women’s college world series. It’s the end of an era. Close to five years as defending champs. Also, number one Vandy and number two Texas have been eliminated. We’ve had like six national seeds eliminated in the men’s college world series brackets in regionals. UCLA is through though. It’s been crazy crazy playoffs. These kids are throwing like 95 at mid- major schools. Back in my day in college, if you were throwing 95, you were either drafted or you were at a D1 for sure. like midweek games against mid- majors we were facing like 88 87 maybe you’d get like a 90 91 college game is crazy now guys are hitting homers oppo against guys throwing 96 college game is fun right now I’m a little bit tight my heels a little tight my lat tricep junction is a little tight we’re going to play some nice athletic catch have an easy day get a little treatment pretty short day here at the field today goal today is to keep my eyes locked on the target and actually finish the pitch. Everything last game was up until like the sixth inning where I put a big conscious effort on getting it down. I think that’s going to probably force me to get uh a little bit more extension. Using external focus to affect mechanical change [Applause] feel too good for this bullpen 89. am I doing? Yeah, I popped a 90 in my other bullpen. I was like, what is this? Oh, I like watching other pitchers bullpens to get a sense of how their stuff moves because that gives me a better idea when I watch the games as to why hitters are reacting certain ways and why they’re reacting other ways to different pitches. Now, K’s a lefty and I’m a righty, but I can still learn from him by watching his pitches and watching the games. And I do love to learn. He’s a great guy to learn from right now because he’s one of the league leaders in the RA. And side note to all the MLB execs watching the vlog, can someone give the guy a job in the States next year? He deserves it. Anyway, we started inner league play with a 6-3 win over Racketin to move us to 2721 and three on the year, which is pretty good. And it was time for my own personal bullpen to get ready for the fighters. Quick update, this is Chomp, the most exotic bow outage glove ever made and the only strike, I switch to the wind up. Going to randomize the pitches, randomize the counts. and what I’m trying to do. So, if I try to bury a curveball and I leave it in the zone, it’s missed spot. Doesn’t count. So, I have to execute everything that I’m trying to execute. I told you, dude. As soon as we get out here, they just start railing balls at us. Someone is going to die. My camera is going to get hit again. Look at this attempted murder. You watch. When I go to the plow wall, he’ll start hitting homers over the fence to try to get me. Guaranteed. Good news is tricep feels good throwing today. But that loosened up pretty well. Yeah, still not getting my shoulders all the way rotated on that one. There we go. All right, let’s treat this like an inning here. So, one of these couple warm-up pitches in here. All right, game is starting. 20 pitches. Start off leadoff hitter cutter. Strike one. Okay, we’re going to go quick pitch sweeper for a strike. Nope. That means I switched to the stretch one count. Let’s go back to our splitter. Oh my goodness. The intent was there. I just didn’t finish the pitch. We got to go back to it. Same. Okay, back to bat mistakes there. 3-1, one for four, curveball strike. Nope. Walk. One for five. We need to recommit to this. Starting over. I have to start out the stretch though. First pitch fast ball. Nice. Back to the wind up. I want splitter off of that. Very, very good. Nailed the last two. So, we’re three for seven. I want a front hip two seam. Yes. Okay. Now, we’ll go regular leg kick out of the wind up. That was a ball. Let’s say I hit my spot. Let’s make Let’s bounce a curve ball on the plate. Yep. Okay. Five for nine. We’ll go quick pitch sweeper. Beautiful. It’s really well done. I did lose contact with the target with my eyes though, so refocus on that. Keep the eyes on the target. Go heater up and in. Actually, make this uh sinker. Yeah, good. Missed off in. Okay, we’ve gone sweeper fast ball in. Cut her away. Strike. So, we’re back to the stretch here. Missed spot. Fast ball down away off that. Yep. We have a pause leg kick splitter down middle below the zone middle. Back to the stretch. We are 32. We’re going to execute fast ball down away. Two seamer. Back to the wind up. How many? I’ll do one more batter. Lefty, we’re going to do curveball strike. Ah, see the target and throw aggressively at the target. One curveball. Okay. One, one. We got a quick pitch. We got splitter strike. I like that pitch. It’s really good. Pause. Leg kick. Heater down away. Just a four seam freeze. Now let’s get a sweeper back foot. Oh yes. Let’s try one back door cutter. We’ll go with this out of a regular. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. How is the two seam like uh horizontal movement? Yeah. It was doing more of that than it had like more rides and like kind of coming down. Yeah. Is it different than the forcing or pretty similar? So, more of kind of like flat across as opposed to down. Well, it’s it’s doing this so it’s coming up. Let’s talk bullpens for a second. Did I hit every single spot today? No. Was it still a good bullpin? Absolutely. I put myself in a lot of random positions to kind of simulate the game. I think I committed very well to the glove. Even when I would miss instead of thinking about mechanical stuff or whatever, I was able to lock back in on the glove. So, that was one thing. I didn’t want to be thinking about my delivery too much. Last couple games have gone well. So, I’m more in like a maintain phase. Although, last game I was not able to get the ball down. So, how did I do about getting the ball down today better? But, uh, when I looked at the Trackman plot after the bullpen, my pitches were all in the middle row. None were like true up and none were true down. They’re all just in the middle. Off speed, fast balls, everything. So, I’m just wondering if my calibration is off. Like, maybe I just don’t understand what the bottom of the zone is cuz I feel like I hit a lot of bottom of the zone pitches. I need to think about that. I need to make sure I’m better about that. After my bullpen, I was feeling pretty confident in where I was heading into my game. So, I got a quick lift in and I headed home to watch the game. Now, Andre pitched pretty good, but we ended up losing three to one. The offense just couldn’t get going, so we dropped another game in the standings. I did find out that I’d be pitching against Hiomiito, though, in a couple days. Now, he’s one of the best pitchers in Japan. He pitched for team Japan, Samurai Japan, in the last WBC. So, it’s going to be a pretty fun matchup. Well, day before start day. Beautiful day. Fortunately, I’m getting a little sick again. I don’t know why my immune system’s all messed up, but uh the back of my throat feels scratchy and I have drainage down my throat that I keep like like coughing up. My aura ring gave me all sorts of warnings this morning. It’s like you slept well, but looks like your body is fighting something off. Looks like your symptoms are starting to flare up. My body temperature was up. I just can’t keep it together this year. Good news is I still slept decently well last night and my body feels pretty good outside of my heel. armpit, tricep, that stuff. Feels pretty good. We’ll see how it is when I throw. And start day is tomorrow and it doesn’t look like it’s going to rain. Assuming I don’t wake up feeling like death again. I should be in good physical condition for the game. I was watching some of the fighters games getting familiar with their lineup. Couple names. They got Manami who hit a homer off when I faced him last year or last time. Also in the All-Star game, although I was telling him every pitch was coming. And then they have a guy named Fran Mill Reyes who a lot of you might know. Uh, so he’s in their lineup. Obviously got got some power there. Big power. Didn’t recognize a ton of the other names. I have to go back and watch tonight the uh the game I pitched against them in 2023. Do a little scouting. They hit a lot of homers. They do a lot of damage. Kind of more like an American style uh offense. Not swinging playing wise or anything, but just in terms of like output. Now, the last couple games, everyone’s been swinging at the first pitch of the game against me. Mostly fast balls. given up a couple hits on the first pitch. One single the first T made a great diving play and then we just we had an out but we just misconnected on the throw. But the other one was a homer. So I probably won’t be throwing first pitch fast ball tomorrow cuz clearly people are coming out and like oh we’re just going to swing at the first pitch fast ball. Maybe if I throw the first pitch fast ball it’ll just be like right under the chin. Send a message early. Sweeper. I got to throw like a curveball. That was good. See if I keep it online. Can you get down for two, Sean? Just fast balls. There we go. After a nice easy day of playing catch, it was time to watch the game. And K pitched, gave up zero yet again, and we won 5 nothing to take the series against Racketin. He’s now a league leader in RA at 1.02, which is pretty spectacular. And with that, it was time to face the Fighters. And I wanted to get us off to a good start. Uh, game day fighters. Uh they are first place team. Feast or famine offense. So don’t hit for the highest average, but they do a lot of damage. And of course I’m matching up with their best pitcher uh Romanito. He’s tied with me right now actually for strikeouts for second in the league. He’s got like six wins and 68 innings pitch. I think I’m at 71. So yeah, runs are going to be hard to come by tonight for us predictably. I mean I think who knows, maybe not. And the solo homer might win or lose the game. Uh wind’s blowing a little bit out, so that could come into it, especially with uh you know, Frame gets the ball in the air. He’s got insane power. So, we’re uh in inner league. I don’t know if you can hear my sickness. My voice is so scratchy right now. I slept okay, though. So, I feel fine physically, like just got a splitting headache. But anyway, got these uh new base stars hats for inner league play. These uniforms here, which are pretty cool. Should be a good game. Uh I’m hoping to get some strikeouts tonight. Need to try to catch up to first place. He’s 12 ahead of me. Uh he’s at 78 already somehow. He does have more innings pitched than I do. So, uh, I’m going to go try to get rid of this splitting headache with some caffeine and some really loud metal music and get ready for the game and we’ll see how it goes. Oh, before I turn this metal on, what better way to generate a lot of swings and misses and get the most strikeouts in the league than by using Breeze. If you want strikeouts, Breeze is the way to go. trev.com. Go get yours right now. Leading off is Misatani. And I start him off with a cutter down and away, figuring he’s swinging first pitch of the game. He does swing at it and I’m ahead 01. I follow that up with another cutter away for strike two. And here I was like, “Okay, I got to get the ball in on him. See if I can get a fast ball up and maybe blow up by him.” So that’s what I tried to do. I left it a little bit more middle than in, but I get a weak little fly ball to center field to start the game. Good start. Next up is a two-hole hitter, Eshi. And I go with a quick pitch cutter to start the at bat to jump ahead 01. And here I go with a pause leg kick fast ball up and in. 1-1. I throw a splitter. And it was a good height. I’m happy with the height. It just started too far in off the plate. But I was happy with the pitch, how it felt, so I decided to repeat it. and 22. I came back with that fast ball up and in and I get the swing that I was looking for and another weak little fly ball to center. Although this one actually made it all the way to my center fielder. So that brings up the three-hole hitter, Komia. And I started him off with a back door sweeper, but I just kind of yanked it. At this point, I was not really feeling into it. My head was pounding and I did not feel like super locked in. I was there physically mostly, but like my head was like I couldn’t focus on anything. I didn’t have like sharp vision. I was disoriented. It was a very odd feeling and it was definitely messing with my command. 1 I went with a slideep splitter that had great movement and I got a trigger out of it but no swing. Now two when I decided to throw a fast ball but I went with a quick pitch here just to try to throw him off timing wise. I did miss my spot a little bit by a couple ball wetss too high and I end up in a 3-1 count. I like the feel from the pitch earlier in the at bat. Had really good movement so I was like, “Okay, I’ll go back to it here.” I execute that really well at the bottom of the zone to get to 3-2 followed by a fast ball on the black away and get a nice weak little ground ball out to short for the third out of the inning. So 14 pitches in and we scored one in the bottom of the first inning. So I took the mound for the second up one- nothing in need of a shutdown inning. Leading off is Fran Mil Reyes who you may remember from MLB. I start off with the first pitch cutter away for a ball followed by the same pitch basically for a swinging strike to get to 1-1. I then chose to slow it down a little bit and throw the bigger moving sweeper. I get a nice big swing and miss to get to one two. And here I was like, okay, he just saw this breaking away. I’ll show him that breaking down. Try to get this curve ball in the dirt. Maybe get a swing and a miss. I left it a little bit too high where he could get the barrel to it, but he had a weak little ground ball on the infield for an out to start the second. So that brings up Manami, the five hole hitter, and start him off fast ball up and in for strike one. And I followed up with basically the same pitch on the 01 count, but this one misses by a couple inches. So I tried to come back with a back door splitter 1-1 and I missed a little bit and then 2-1 I decided to use that up and in tunnel and throw a sweeper down and away. I executed it perfectly. He was out in front of it and hit it off the end of the bat but somehow he snuck it through for a hit. So that brings up the six hole hitter Matsamoto. I start him off with a cutter down and away for a strike. Really nice pitch followed by a two seam up and in. But one I decided to come back with a fast ball away and this really surprised me. He went to lay down a sacrifice bunt or maybe he was just trying to bunt for a hit. I’m not sure exactly. Either way, I’ll take the out and we’re in a good spot to get out of this inning. So, that brings up the seven hole hitter, Fushimi. And I start him off with the first pitch sweeper away and get a swing and a miss to the exact same pitch. And he didn’t see it very well, but he hit it off the end of the bat. Hit a bloop over the shortstop’s head. Unfortunately, my outfielder got a good read on this one. Immediately read that he had to charge it and makes a nice running play. Thank you for making that catch, Yoshi. It was a nice play. And we’re out of the second inning. So, that brings me to the plate for the first time in the bottom of the second. So, first pitch fast ball right down the middle. And I can immediately tell that he had like really good life on it. It was only 92, but it like doesn’t come down. Usually fast balls like fade a little bit or whatever, but I could tell right away that he had really good life on his fast ball. And the next pitch is exactly what happens when you have good life on the fast ball. I was on time with it, but I just wasn’t close to the movement. So, he must have like pretty exceptional vertical lift on his fast ball. I could tell as a pitcher that like he’s got some good stuff there on the heater. In O2, I was just in protect mode trying to foul something off. Obviously, I wasn’t very good at positioning the barrel there to do it. And I strike out. So, pretty pathetic at bat to lead off the game for me. Let’s head back out for the third. First up is the eight hole hitter Yamagata. And he swings at a first pitch cutter. I almost get a first pitch out here, which would have been really nice. Ground ball to third, but it drifts foul. And here I try to throw a two seam up and in. And he’s like out in front of it. Barrel like fully out in front. Smokes it off the middle of the wall and left. And that surprised me. It wasn’t like full truly in, but just the timing wise, he was nice swing by him. And I got the pitcher up now. Probably looking to sack bunt. Throw him a first pitch splitter fully expecting a bunt. Then he took a hack at it. I think it’s right baseball decision here, but he was nowhere close to that splitter. So I threw another one on the 01 count and he was nowhere close to that one either. So I decided to take one shot here out of the zone to see if I could get a strike out. I bounced a curveball and I get a swing and a miss and that’s exactly what I need. The guy stays at second and I record the out. So that brings the one hole hitter Misatani back to the plate. I start him off with a first pitch sweeper to fall behind 10, but I decide to come back with that back door splitter. I did not get it there. I got it kind of up and in. He hit it off the handle and hit a weak little liner out to left field. And Yoshi makes another really nice play for me. So, two outs, man. Still on second. That brings up the two-hole hitter, Isi. And I throw him a first pitch curve ball below the zone and get a swing and a miss at it. So, I made sure on the next pitch to get this ball off of the plate. Made sure to get it away. I didn’t want to leave it in the zone. He’s kind of opening up. I get the swing I’m looking for. He definitely was bailing out of there and reached for it. Hits it right off the cap of the bat for a foul ball to get to 02. And here, I was trying to bounce the curveball. I left it in unfortunately a hitable location. So I don’t get the strike out. But I am fortunate that I did just get a really weak rollover and we get the ground ball the second to end the inning. So I’m through three unscathed. We didn’t score anymore in the bottom of the third. So it’s out for the top of the fourth and I’m still feeling a little bit disoriented in my head. Although my body is kind of starting to wake up. I’m starting to get a little bit of energy now. So the fast ball and everything was feeling good, but I just couldn’t shake this like disoriented feeling. Anyway, top of the fourth three-hole hitter Komia is up. First pitch curveball at the top of the zone, but I missed. So ball one followed by a slideep splitter kind of up in middle but I get to 1-1 and I dodged a bullet there. Came right back with a slideep splitter down but he didn’t seem to have any interest in swinging at that pitch. 2-1. I come back with a fast ball down and away and get a weak little roll over to first for an easy first out of the inning. I start off the bat with a curve ball but I missed high. Come back with a really nice fast ball down and away for a strike to get back to 1-1. And then I throw a nice two seam in off the plate and jam him. I think I broke his bat and I get a weak ground ball to shortstop for a quick out. That brings up Manami and I make an adjustment on the first pitch curveball. I land a nice curveball for a strike out of the slide step. I come back with a splitter down and away. I missed. I got a little trigger out of him so I could tell he was kind of looking away a little bit, but there wasn’t really much reaction there. So, I decided to follow that up out of the same tunnel with a fast ball that stayed in the zone and I get a weak little off the end of the bat ground ball out to shortstop to end the inning. So, all in all, pretty darn cleaning right there and I’m rolling right along in this one- nothing game. Now, in the bottom of the fourth, my spot in the order came back up again, so I had to hit unfortunately. However, there was a man on second with one out. So, instead of having to swing, I was asked to bunt, which I’m much more comfortable doing. Didn’t look like it on the first pitch, which I fouled off. Not a good attempt at all. I like stabbed at the ball instead of using my legs. So, on the second pitch, I made that adjustment. Successful sack bunt to move the guy over to third base. Anyway, leading off the fifth is Matt Samoto. So I start him off with a really bad sweeper high arm side followed by a fast ball up and away which I threw much better and I get to 1-1. Now here I throw a curve ball and he takes a really awkward swing at it and kind of like fouls it off the end of the bat. I didn’t really know what to make of that live. So wasn’t sure exactly where to go from there. I tried to freeze fast ball down and away and I hit my spot really well. I just missed by a couple of inches and I don’t get the call. So it’s 22. And at this point I actually started feeling quite a bit better. Maybe that bunt and running to first helped or something. I don’t know. But the head fog kind of started to clear and like I started to lock in. Tried the fast ball away again. This time I just elevated, tried to like blow it by him and get the swing. He was late on it and just took an emergency swing and fouled it off. Try to use that tunnel and throw a sweeper and I almost get the swing. I executed it pretty darn well. He somehow held up and gets to 3-2. Now here I tried to go back to that fast ball down and away and I missed my spot a little bit, but I’m honestly shocked that he didn’t swing at this pitch. Like it was middle and it had to have looked like a breaking ball. It seems like he was looking for breaking balls in this at bat, but I don’t know. Really good at bat by him though. Like I feel like I executed this at bat pretty darn well. He executed really well and he ended up beating me. So props to him. But that’s a leadoff walk and that is not what I wanted. Next up is Fushimi and he’s looking to bunt which kind of caught me up by surprise. I was like well if he’s trying to bunt like he’s not going to want balls coming at him. So I decided to throw a splitter in and more one I landed a curveball in the zone. They had taken the bunt sign off and he hits a weak low ground ball to third for a double play. So about the perfect way that that could possibly have worked out for me after a leadoff walk. So next up is Yamagata with two outs and I threw him a first pitch fast ball up in middle at 95. So I threw him a curveball and I got a big bite out of him. He ended up holding up so 1-1. And then I threw him a splitter back door and he’s like trying to bunt for a base hit here which is odd. He doubled off of me in the first and then I don’t know, he’s just trying to make something happen. So 2-1. I came back with it and I get a ball right off the end of the bat. Unfortunately, it just like perfectly placed right down the line and hits off the base and it ends up being a double. Unfortunate, but luckily I got a double play before, otherwise that probably would have been a run and that wouldn’t have been any fun at all. So, next up is the pitcher. I threw my first pitch splitter and he did not look like he was interested in swinging at that at all. So, I come back with a cutter and he takes it. Looked a little bit surprised that it wasn’t a fast ball. Now, 1-1, I came back with a curveball. He hasn’t seen that other than the one that was in the dirt yet. So I come back with the same exact pitch, just make sure and bury it like I did in the first bat. And I get basically a carbon copy of the first strikeout, which is a bounce curve ball, swing and miss, throw the guy out at first to end the inning. No runs for the base stars in the bottom of the fifth. So I take the mound for the top of the six. Still up two nothing with the leadoff hitter Misatani at the plate. First pitch, slide step sweeper for a ball, followed by a regular windup sweeper for a ball, followed by a comeback two seam that missed the zone down and away. And in the span of a couple seconds, I was behind three 0 to the leadoff hitter. And I was like, “Uh, Trevor, you’re not walking the leadoff hitter the second inning in a row. Don’t do this. Throw a strike.” So that’s what I did. 96 fast ball away followed by a cutter that shed the exact same tunnel, broke off the plate, and I get the swing. So I come back with another cutter and get a foul ball. Good job by him fouling it off. So I was like, “Okay, I’m going to come back with a fast ball down the way.” So I execute this pitch perfectly, exactly where I want it, but he didn’t freeze and he ends up hitting it off the base of the wall for a double. 97 mph on that pitch. So, at this point, my body had woken up, but really impressive job of hitting by him. So, that brings up the two-hole hitter, Ishi. And first pitch, he looks to be sack bunting, and he pops this splitter up, and we almost get an out right here. Just a little bit out of Matsuo’s reach. I threw him a curveball, and he didn’t hit this well. Kind of jammed him a little bit, and he hit a little flare out to center. The guy on second, Mizatani, wasn’t sure if he was going to catch it or not either, so he just ends up at third. So, no run scores. Nice job by Kua and center to get the ball in very quickly to not allow that run to score. But now, I’m in all sorts of trouble. We got the three, four, five hole hitters coming up with no outs, man on first and third. And this is not looking good. But I do have a two-run lead. So, my mindset here was like, just get an out. If the guy on third scores, it’s fine. I’m obviously trying to not let him score, but if he scores, it’s fine. We’re still ahead. Just don’t let the guy on first score. The next up is Komia. So, I throw a curveball for a strike, and he hits a little weak like flare job, and this ball just trickles out into left field for a hit to score a run. I’m in a world of hurt right here. First pitch sweeper away. I figured he’d be aggressive. I missed by quite a bit. And here I was like, I’m just going to I’m going to let it eat. I’m going to give everything I have here. So 155 up and away. Blew it by him. And I threw a nice back door splitter location-wise, but it gets pretty good lumber to it. Now, all game the flags had been blowing out to right field. Fortunately for that at bat, for some reason, the flags weren’t blowing, and this just happened to be a normal flyyou. Although it actually ended up being anything but a normal flyyou. my center fielder and my right fielder had a little bit of a miscommunication and almost dropped it. Fortunately, he hung on, made an incredible play that probably should never have had to be made, but you know, it’s an out, but that brought probably their best hitter, Manami, to the plate. So, I had to be really careful here. First pitch cutter down and away, and I don’t get the call. Then I decided to come in and I hit the black, I thought, but I don’t get that call either. So, I kind of made the decision after 2. I was like, you know what? I’m just going to walk him and get to the next guy who I felt like I could get out a lot easier than Monami. So, bases loaded, one out. Matsumoto at the plate. First pitch, 96, foul ball, but he was right on it timing wise. Second pitch, fast ball down and away. I take a nice 02 lead here. I tried to use the fast ball down and away tunnel with a splitter below the zone and I ended up spiking it. The one two, I came back with a curveball and I thought I got the sword here. Somehow he held up. I don’t know. Let me know what you guys think. Do you guys think he held up? I thought it was a swing live, but umpire ruled it not a swing. So, we end up in a 2-2 count and I was like, I’m giving it everything I have and I threw him 97 and a half and I got the double play that I was looking for. Massive moment to escape a bases loaded mess of an inning. I was fired up about that. No runs in the bottom of the sixth for the base stars and going out for the seventh. I was like, Trevor, do not get behind the leadoff hitter. Do not walk the leadoff hitter. Let’s try to get the leadoff hitter out this time. So, of course, we start off with cutter for a ball, cut her for a ball, forcing him for a ball. And even though I executed two of those pitches fairly well, I’m still behind 3 0. And now I’m just pissed off. I’m like, you got to be for the third inning in a row. Trevor, what are you doing? I was like so mad at myself. Okay, let’s come back. 3- 0 fast ball for a strike. Followed by 3-1 fast ball down and away for a strike. And I was like, you know what? I’m just going to repeat that same pitch. I’m not throwing a ball here. And then my foot slipped on the mound. I landed. My foot completely gave out and I completely fell over. And I don’t I didn’t even see where the ball went live. I just knew it wasn’t a strike. And I was pissed off. The mound had dug out. It was a little bit wet to start the game. And then there’s a big hole down there because Itto and I were both landing in the exact same footprint. So there’s like a hole this big, but it was only about like that wide and there’s a canyon. It was like steep ridges on either side and my foot hit in it and slipped and I was mad. So that brings up the eight hole hitter Yamagata. He pops it up and we get a one pitch out which is a blessing. Like we will take that. So one out, man on first with the pitcher spot up and they decide not to pinch hit for the pitcher in this situation. So I was like okay. So, I throw a first pitch cutter, foul ball. Second pitch splitter, foul ball. I’ll just throw a curveball in the dirt here. Maybe he’ll chase it. Didn’t quite get in the dirt, but he missed it and fouled it off. So, I get a three- pitch foul ball bunting K, which I’ll take. But that brings up Misatani. I leave him off with a curveball for a ball, followed by a splitter for a ball. And on that one, the runner took off trying to steal second. Unfortunately, the ball sneaks its way into center field, and he ends up on third. And so, now I’m in a two- count against Mizatani. And guy on third, two outs. I made the decision here, too, that I was like, you know what? I’m just going to put him on and I’ll get the next guy. Main on first and third for the two-hole hitter. First pitch splitter. I just lost it. Slipped out of my hand. So, waist pitch followed by a fast ball in perfectly placed on the black for a strike to get to 1-1. And here I throw a really good splitter and hits a line drive towards third base. Thank god that went right to my third baseman because I would have been so mad if I gave up a hit there to let the game be tied. So, a little bit of good batted ball luck finally going my way this season and I’m out of the seventh inning. I got myself in all sorts of trouble and wasted a whole bunch of pitches the last couple innings by putting the leadoff guy on. So I was just like determined to not let that happen again. But before that I had to take another at bat. Came up with one out, nobody on. So I took the first two pitches, one for a ball, one for a strike. And then I auto took the third pitch for a strike as well. And he threw me the same pitch that he got me on the first time. That fast ball above the zone. It looked like a strike. He’s got really above average carry to it. And I swung right underneath the ball. Anyway, no runs for us in the bottom of the seventh. So, I take the bound for the top of the eighth at 104 pitches. Still in a 2-1 game. And I was like, you know what? Throw strike one. Do not let the leadoff hitter get on. This is the inning. First up is Komia. And I throw my first pitch cutter on the hands and get a weak popup. And I can’t tell you how happy I was at this point to not have the leadoff guy on it. So, this was a breath of fresh air. And now, if Franwell gets into a ball, it’s just a tie game and not a loss. So, I start him off with a cutter down and away for a strike, followed by a cutter down and away for a ball. And then I throw a sweeper as the same sequence that I threw him early in the game. Only this time, instead of swinging missing at the sweeper up and away, he hits a weak little roll over to shortstop. And I have a quick second out. Four pitches, two outs. Exactly what I needed. So, that brought up Manami and I throw a first pitch fast ball and he hits a little jam shot out to my second baseman for a hit. I guess uh they marked it a hit. The pinch ran for Manami to put someone faster in. clearly trying to steal a base so that a hit here would tie the game. And Matsumoto is at the plate. I start him off with a first pitch fast ball down and away. Perfectly placed to get ahead, followed by a curveball that misses the zone by a little bit. And I don’t get the swing. So, it’s a 1-1 count. Now, on that pitch, the runner clearly was trying to get a jump. So, I picked off twice following that to try to keep him close, but it seemed like he was pretty comfortable with a really big lead. So, I was just trying to mix up my timings so that he didn’t get a good jump. One, I threw a fast ball that kind of ran up and in towards the hands, and I get a nice pop up on the infield to end the inning. And that put me at 112 pitches through eight with a 2-1 lead. So when we didn’t score in the bottom of the eighth, they sent me back out for the ninth to try to get the complete game. First up is a pinch hitter, Yosha. I start him off with a fast ball above the zone for ball one, followed by a cutter that he fouls off to get to 1-1, followed by a curveball that he swings through at the bottom of the zone. So now I have a really nice tunnel set up with that curveball swing and that high fast ball. After the swing on the curveball on the 1-1 count though, I decided to go back to the curveball and bounce it. And I get a nice little sword here to start off the nice inning. That felt good. It was my first strike out of the night on someone other than the pitcher. That puts me at four strikeouts on the night, which is pretty abysmal, but hey, we get a complete game, two-1 win. I’ll take that. Next up is Yamagata with one out. And I throw a first pitch slideep cutter and he swings at it and pops it up to right field. There’s a little bit of miscommunication there, but ultimately we ended up making the catch and I got a nice quick out for out number two of the ninth inning. And that brought up Gungji. So I threw him a first pitch fast ball down and away for a ball. I followed it up with a perfect sweeper down and away. and he clearly was looking to jump ship on a fast ball and hit a homer and he’s way out in front of it and swings and misses to get me to 1-1. I threw a curveball down in the way. Really nice catch by Matsua right there. I think this is probably a ball, but like he caught it very well to steal a strike. So, I tried to throw my absolute best curveball and of course left it hanging in the zone. But fortunately for me, he just hit a ground ball to shortstop and that was the game. A 2-1 complete game win. I needed that. It turns out that Itto ended up throwing a complete game as well. In a two-1 loss, he threw eight innings. So, that puts me at two complete games on the year. Only eight more to go to qualify for the 10 that I need for a sophomore award. And I get my fourth win of the season, which is huge. For all the struggles that I’ve had this season early on and all the bad luck, I do feel like I’m throwing the ball better than my numbers say. And I do feel like I’m in the middle of a pretty good run that I’m putting together. So, hopefully we can continue it next game and see where we end up. But make sure you subscribe to the channel so you don’t miss

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