Hideki Matsui, the first Japanese player to win the World Series MVP, was predicted to be the first pitchman for Game 5 of the World Series.
Japanese media Sponichi Annex reported on the 30th (Korea Standard Time), “In Game 5 of the World Series, the Yankees’ special assistant Hideki Matsui will pitch the first pitch.”
Matsui used to be a slugger who represents Japan as a home run hitter. From 1993 to 2002, he played for the Yomiuri Giants, a prestigious Japanese pro baseball team, and posted a batting average of 346 (3,090 hits in 4,572 times at bat) with 332 homers, 889 RBIs, 901 runs, 46 steals, and OPS.996. Since then, he has moved to the Major League and played for the Yankees, Angels, Oakland and Tampa Bay, and posted a batting average of 282 (1,253 hits in 4,442 times at bat) with 175 homers, 760 RBIs, 656 runs, 13 steals and OPS.822.
In 2009, the last year for the Yankees, he was the main hitter of the Yankees with a batting average of 274 (for 125 hits in 456) and 28 homers, 90 RBIs and 62 runs scored and OPS.876 in 142 regular-season games, and won the World Series MVP award with a batting average of 615 (for 14), three homers, eight RBIs and three runs scored and OPS 2.027 hit in six games. He was the first Asian player to win the World Series MVP award.
The Yankees, who hold the World Series title (27 times), have not added a World Series trophy in 14 years since Matsui last won the World Series MVP in 2009. This year, he is trying to win the World Series for the first time in 15 years. Derek Jeter, who was so good in autumn baseball that he was nicknamed “Mr. November” in Game 3 at Yankee Stadium, his home stadium, on the 29th, threw the first pitch. In Game 4, Paul O’Neill, who played as an All-Star outfielder for the Yankees in the 1990s, will pitch, and Matsui will pitch in Game 5, the last World Series game at his home stadium.
However, the Yankees are on the verge of losing the World Series even before Matsui threw the first pitch. The team is on the verge of losing the series sweep as it has lost three consecutive games to the Dodgers, which it met for the first time in 43 years since the 1981 World Series.
In the first game held at Dodger Stadium, the Dodgers’ home ground, Freddie Freeman hit a walk-off grand slam in the 10th inning to lose the game 3-6, and in the second game, the team lost the game 2-4, as the batters failed to perform well. The game went in a similar way in the third game when they returned to their home ground. The Dodgers dominated the game with Freeman’s first two-run homer, and the Yankees, who gave up the flow in the early part of the game, failed to catch up and lost 2-4.
In the history of the World Series, there has been no reverse sweep with four consecutive wins after three losses. Even if the series is expanded to all postseason series that were best-of-seven, Boston is the only team that succeeded in reverse sweep in the 2004 American League Championship Series. Coincidentally, the Yankees had the reverse sweep against Boston.
Fans are paying keen attention to whether the Yankees, who are on the verge of finishing the World Series in 15 years after losing all four games, will be able to win Game 4 and show Matsui throwing the first pitch in Game 5. 메이저사이트
