Shintaro Fujinami Continues Improving, Even in Loss

The Japanese right-hander turned in his best start of his young big league career against the New York Mets

"He has nasty shit." 

It's safe to say that Saturday's catcher Carlos Pérez wouldn't mind reprising his role as the catcher for Shintaro Fujinami in future contests. 

Pérez and Fuji hadn't worked together much ahead of Saturday's game, with the catcher being a late-spring signing, but the combo worked well together in the A's 3-2 loss, and Fujinami turned in his best start of the season to date, working six plus, giving up four hits, three runs, two walks, and striking out five. 

Two of those runs came on solo home runs from Pete Alonso, the ML leader in dingers, and former A Mark Canha in the fourth and seventh.

Fuji said that Pérez called a great game for him. In the fifth inning, Fujinami walked Luis Guillorme on four pitches, then tossed another ball to Francisco Álvarez. The right-hander credited his catcher with calling time after that fifth straight ball. "It was great timing for me. I felt comfortable pitching to him" he said through interpreter Issei Kamada. 

Pérez was also behind the plate for Ken Waldichuk's start in Baltimore on Wednesday, in what also happened to be his best start of the year. The left-hander gave the A's 6.1 innings in that game. 

Kotsay said after the game that it's coincidence that Fujinami and Pérez aligned today, but that Carlos did a great job in the manager's eyes. "He built confidence in the fastball early, continued to call it."

After allowing the home run to Canha to lead off the seventh, Fujinami walked his second batter of the game, Daniel Vogelbach. It was at that point that the manager pulled his starter. Trevor May came into the game and got two outs, but the runner Fujinami had left behind came around to score when the lineup turned over and Brandon Nimmo drilled a double into the corner in right. 

That hit ended up being the difference in the 3-2 game.

The A's got their two runs in the second inning after Ramón Laureano started things off with a single, followed by an Aledmys Díaz double. After Jesús Aguilar flew out to right, Conner Capel grounded to first base to score the first run. After Pérez was hit by a Carlos Carrasco slider, Esteury Ruiz singled home the A's second run. 

The A's were plunked four times in this game, with Ruiz getting hit twice. They also drew three walks. None of those free base runners came around to score. Oakland threatened plenty in the late innings, but couldn't come up with the big hit. 

New addition to the club Tyler Wade pinch-ran for Brent Rooker in the eighth and stole second, then third. Conner Capel struck out with Wade at third and Ryan Noda at second to end the eighth. 

Pérez (1-for-2, HBP, BB) singled to lead off the bottom of the ninth before being lifted for pinch-runner Shea Langeliers. Ruiz sacrificed him to second on a bunt, then Kemp was put out 2-3 to advance Langeliers to third for Kevin Smith with two out. He got down 0-2, then had an automatic ball called, but struck out looking to end the game on the next pitch.  

The plan for now is to continue using Shintaro Fujinami on Saturdays, though Kotsay did leave some room for that plan to change in the future: "Our plan hasn't changed. We're going to go discuss our options, and to continue to evaluate how he's feeling, and possibly make changes as we move forward."