Okajima Gets His Win

Tonight, in his twenty-fifth relief appearance, Hideki Okajima earned his first win. For the season, he’s 1-0, with four saves, a seemingly modest line. But on closer inspection, his stats are far more impressive, if that’s the correct term for statistics that are so small one can barely detect them. Like his ERA, now an even 1.00. In twenty-seven innings pitched, he’s surrendered only three runs. Or to look at that from the opposite perspective, in 22 of his 25 appearances, he hasn’t surrendered a run. In sixteen of those appearances he hasn’t given up a hit. 27 Ks to only seven walks. And tonight, he faced the Yankees for the seventh time this season; as yet, they haven’t figured this guy out. Four up, four down. It was a 1-2-3 eighth inning. A pop fly to shallow center; a weak-ass grounder to Lowell; and Phelps caught staring at strike three. As that Yankee announcer likes to say, “See ya.”

The other interesting thing about Okajima is that it’s hard to see how or why he’s so effective. There was never any mystery about Rivera; every pitch was a cut fastball, the only uncertainty being whether it was 94 or 95 miles an hour. Every one. Papelbon similarly overpowers batters; they have trouble catching up with his stuff. But Okajima is not a power pitcher; and he’s as effective against righties as lefties, maybe more so. But whatever the guy is doing, I hope he keeps it up.

Now I don’t want any of my readers to think that I believe in superstitious stuff; I’m in this debate right now with Danny about the patriarch Abraham, and I’m advocating the rational interpretation of Genesis. But tonight, after Jeter hit that home run in the top of the seventh, I took off my Manny Ramirez T, and threw it in the laundry. I realized I’d been wearing the thing on and off for the last few days, and here we were, facing a three game losing streak for the first time this year. No sooner had the shirt hit the hamper than the Sox scored five in the bottom of the seventh, aided by a couple Yankee errors, and the losing stopped. Now I suppose that doesn’t prove anything; I could have kept wearing that shirt and the Sox could have rallied anyway. But I’ve got other RedSox Ts, and how could it possibly hurt to make a change? And who knows? Who can tell me that it didn’t make a difference to make that change? Sometimes, it’s the little things, like Okajima’s ERA, that matter most.