ノーヒットノーランを逃した裏話

Translation:

*Hello again everyone, Kenta Maeda here.*

*So, I pitched yesterday and threw a no-hitter.*

[Guy off camera:] No you didn’t, you were close though.

*Oh, I think my memory is failing me. I thought I threw a no-hitter, that’s weird.*

*Anyway, I failed at throwing a no-hitter yesterday. I made it to the 9th inning, and it’s not like I was planning on throwing one, but it would’ve been a nice personal achievement.*

We *were winning 3-0 in the 9th and I surrendered a hit to the leadoff batter, so I got switched out for our closer. And I saw all over the comments throughout the news and media that our closer blew the save and that I got a no-decision, so everyone seems to be feeling bad for me. But that’s just baseball, sometimes your closer gets hit, it doesn’t matter what team you play for. So I would like it if people stopped commenting negative things about that. There’s nothing you can do about it and he told me he’s really sorry about it.*

*But our closer, Rogers, felt so bad that he gave me a letter/present…and he left it at my locker. It says ‘Kenta’ on the front. Both in Japan and the US, I have experience with closing pitchers coming to apologize after a blown game, but it seems rarer in the US and it isn’t like we as starting pitchers even want them to feel sorry about it. Everyone knows that if the closer blows a save, there’s nothing you can do about it and that it’s fine.*

*When I played for the Hiroshima Carp, [Katsuhiro] Nakagawa and [Shota] Nakazaki often closed. Nakagawa was way more experienced than me so even if he got hit, I never said anything. With a guy like Nakagawa, he was less experienced but I always saw how hard he practiced and took baseball seriously. So I never had any negative feelings towards them for blowing a save, and I don’t for Rogers either because he’s a great teammate who trains hard and takes the game seriously. I told him not to worry about it, especially because it’s not like my pitching line gets erased or anything and we won the game anyway.*

*But Rogers just felt so bad that he initially offered to buy me some alcohol. Some of my translators and trainers told him that I don’t drink, though. So some of my staff just casually said maybe if we go out to drink you can pay the bill or something. But he insisted that it has to be something that benefits Kenta directly. So one of my trainers told him about this really high-quality Japanese rice from a store I like, and he purchased that for me as a gift.*

*So along with this letter, he presented me with this ticket to trade-in for the rice.*

*I can’t read the letter myself but I had it translated and basically it says “I am so sorry for ruining your phenomenal pitching performance yesterday.” This really made me happy because I don’t think there are that many pitchers out there who care this much to go out of there way to do this.*

*Thank you again for all your positive comments but I urge you again to be nice to Rogers too because he’s a great teammate. That’s basically what I wanted to say in this video.*

*The Minnesota Twins aren’t too well known as a franchise in Japan, but the team is really filled with great teammates so I want that to be known.*

*Now regarding my near no-hitter, apparently the strikeouts I’ve racked up in the last 8 games is some sort of Twins record…so I’m happy to be able to find myself in Twins history. It’s been like 20 years…or 60 years? Something like that…since it’s been last done.*

[Guy off camera:] That’s a really big range.

*Well, I can’t remember which one. They told me but I forgot. But anyway, the team gave me the game-ball and the uniform I wore yesterday. I washed it but there’s this MLB official sticker on it. An MLB record keeper was there after the game to have me take my jersey off and put the sticker on it on the spot.*

*So anyway, I had no intention of making this video before the start yesterday but I just wanted to let everyone know that the Twins are a great team and that I’m happy about the performance yesterday.*

抑えのロジャース良い人過ぎる‼️
それをきちんと動画で発表するマエケンさんはもっと良い人だ‼️
ちょっと感動しました😭😭
ロジャース頑張って欲しいね💪✨

マエケンさんが辛い時、ロジャースが助けてくれる時もあるはず！

ほんとにTwinsにトレードで来て良かった。良いチームやん

〜10月〜
「メジャーでサイヤング獲ってみた」

こんな選手の裏話が聞けるとかまじで今の時代は進化したなぁって感じるね

CSかけた試合で大瀬良が打たれてマエケンがずっと声かけてたのは忘れないよ