NPB Tracker

Daisuke Matsuzaka spoke to the press after his latest rehab appearance. These comments are a few days old, but still worth sharing. Matsuzaka got knocked around a bit in this outing. This translation is “unofficial”, courtesy of me.

-on finishing his appearance

I need to fine-tune my form, but I didn’t feel like I was way off. I didn’t expect to get hit that hard (in the first inning).

-Five runs

I didn’t give any thought at all to whether I was shutting down the other team or not. I was thinking it would be good if I could confirm that I was stepping up, one step at a time, during the game.

-Pitches thrown

Straight fastball, slider, changeup. I used the a major league ball.

-The next rehab outing is expected to be the last

If I could throw hard in the second inning, I can throw hard from the start in my next appearance.

-On signing for the fans for 15 minutes prior to the game

I don’t normally do that before games, but this isn’t a place I have the opportunity to come to, and a lot of fans came out, so I signed.