Okajima

Yesterday, or perhaps the day before, Okajima was voted the AL rookie of the month. The Sox stealth bomber, Okajima arrived in Boston flying way under the radar screen. While the press, both Japanese and American, went crazy over the arrival of Dice-K, no one noticed that a 31 year old reliever had also shown up this season. And the few folks who did notice merely assumed that Okajima had been acquired to keep Dice-K company. A landsman so to speak, a friendly face, someone familiar with whom Dice-K could speak whenever he got homesick.

Now one month into the season, Okajima isn’t a secret anymore. After giving up a home run on his very first major league pitch, to Travis Buck, who by the way is the same guy who spoiled Papelbon’s perfect season with a ninth inning home run earlier this week, Okajima has not given up an earned run in his last thirteen appearances. He has 19 Ks, and only four walks. His real coming out party was a couple weeks ago, in the first Yankees game of this 2007 season. The Sox stormed back from a 6-2 deficit, scoring 5 runs in their half of the eighth, and took a 7-6 lead into the ninth. Papelbon has just tossed twenty pitch innings on two consecutive nights, and Tito could not use Pap that Friday night. Enter Okajima. John says, and John was sitting in the center field bleachers that night, that the fans groaned audibly as Okajima came out of the pen, and not Papelbon. But as he retired the Yankees in order on that Friday night, in the first of 18 games that will be played this season, the fans got louder and louder. After the third and final out, after Okajima had earned his first major league save, in a game that had gathered as much attention as any regular season game possibly could, the fans went crazy. And RedSox nation had a new, and unexpected hero, Hideki Okajima.

Since that night, Okajima has remained perfect; he still hasn’t allowed another run. Pap and Donnelly ha