“Hundreds of people lined up” at the peak of popularity… Bauer, who showed off his fan service + skills, is expected to join the first team

Trevor Bauer (Yokohama DeNA Baystars) once again delivered a powerful pitch in the second team. It seems that the 1st team appearance of ‘Accident Bunch’ is imminent.

Bauer started on the 22nd (Korean time) in the 2023 Japan Professional Baseball Eastern League Rakuten Golden Eagles 2nd team match held at Hiratsuka Stadium in Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan, and pitched 77 pitches in 5 innings, 2 hits, 2 walks, 2 strikeouts and 1 strikeout. scored a mistake. His highest speed was 154 km.

Bauer, who debuted with the Arizona Diamondbacks in 2012 and recorded an 83-69 ERA of 3.79 over 10 seasons with the Cleveland Indians (now the Guardians), Cincinnati Reds, and LA Dodgers, signed a contract with the Yokohama DeNA Baystars in March this year for one year and $3 million ( About 4 billion won) contract and entered the Japanese professional baseball.

The reason why Bauer, who had the 2020 National League ‘Cy Young Young’, headed to Japan was because of the suspicion of ‘sexual assault’. At the time, Bauer was not charged for lack of evidence, but was suspended for 324 games by MLB. Afterwards, Bauer succeeded in reducing the penalty to 194 games, but the Dodgers cut ties with Bauer, and no club reached out.

Although he succeeded in finding a new team prior to the start of the regular season, Bauer has yet to play a single game. It was because he was caught in a pull in his shoulder while preparing for the season. However, Bauer quickly regained his health, and on the 16th, he made his first actual appearance against the second group of the Seibu Lions with 4 innings, 6 strikeouts, and no runs, and once again delivered powerful pitches.

According to Japanese media outlets, Bauer’s start was straightforward. Bauer showed ‘perfect’ pitching by completely blocking the lineup of Rakuten’s 2nd team in the 1st to 3rd innings. Four or five innings he put out one runner each, but no particular crunch. However, Bauer brought a crisis to first and second base safely with a hit and a walk in the 6th inning and went down the mound, but the bullpen pitcher who came out afterward allowed one runner in charge of Bauer to score and finished the game with one run.

According to Japan’s ‘Chunichi Sports’, 2022 rookie draft 1st rounder Shion Matsuo, who worked with Bauer on this day, said, “The fastball and slider that you know you can throw but can’t hit are really amazing. I think I throw it after thinking a lot.” Thumbs up. However, Bauer was not very satisfied with the pitching. 안전놀이터

Bauer blamed himself, saying, “I didn’t get more speed than the last pitch (up to 156 km). It wasn’t a good pitch.” Regarding whether to join the 1st team, “I have enough sense to throw the ball. I will be able to throw it in the 1st team soon. We have to increase the number,” he said, announcing that joining the first team was imminent.

Currently, ‘Bauer craze’ is blowing in Japan. In Bauer’s first appearance on the 16th, 2,860 spectators visited the Yokosuka Stadium despite the fact that it was a second-team game. And fans who couldn’t see Bauer’s pitching in person gathered ‘online’. Bauer’s pitching relay had more than 70,000 concurrent users.

The same goes for Bauer’s second appearance. According to Nikkan Sports, hundreds of spectators lined up in front of Hiratsuka Stadium three and a half hours before the start of the game. As a result, Hiratsuka Stadium moved the admission of the spectators by an hour, and Bauer signed autographs for the fans standing in line and provided a solid service.