Japanese-American Perspectives

Katsuya Nomura's pitching recipe for success:

1. Two or more pitches that can be thrown for strikes
2. Can throw inside
3. Can throw a pitch that will make the batter swing
4. Knows how to change speeds
5. Can throw a number of pitches well, more than the average pitcher
6. Can locate their pitches
7. Throws down in the zone
8. Can strike out hitters
9. Better than average at fielding, throwing from the set position, and a good pick-off move

Some comments from Katsuya Nomura after last night's game loss against the Softbank Hawks.

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(talking about the double play that ended the 6th)
I wasn't expecting that double play... The last thing I even considered, actually happened. I guess you can't just leave it up to chance. When you can push your players, you really need to push them.

(talking about the two strike outs to end the game)
You normally don't expect a fastball in that ...

Some comments from Katsuya Nomura after last night's game against the Orix Buffaloes ended in a 4-4 tie.

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Will you guys still be able to meet your deadlines?

After scoring the tying run in the 8th, were you thinking about getting the go-ahead run to score as well?
Only if that other pitcher kept on pitching...

You ran a lot for the tying run...
If the chance presents itself, go after it. Looks like the players are finally catching ...

CHUNICHI DRAGONS

...Motonobu Tanishige caught his 2,328th game on Wednesday night. He now only trails Katsuya Nomura's 2,921 games on the All-Time list.

...Kazuhiro Wada hit his 20th home run of the season last night against the Hanshin Tigers. He hadn't hit 20 home runs in one season since 2005.

HANSHIN TIGERS

...Akihiro Yano and Jeff Williams will likely be joining the Ichi-gun rosters on Thursday.

ORIX BUFFALOES

...Naoyuki Ohmura banged out 2

...

At 74 years of age, Katsuya Nomura renewed his record as being the oldest manager in the NPB to win a game. That's still a bit a ways from Connie Mack, who went 52-102 at the age of 87, but still equally impressive.

Prior to winning his first game since turning 74 on June 29th, the Eagles went through a bit of a rough stretch, losing 7 straight games.

"It was a very, very long tunnel," said Nomura. "I had a bad feeling about things and I ended up being ...