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Yusei Kikuchi’s new secret weapon helps him to focus only on baseball

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Yusei Kikuchi with interpreter Yusuke Oshima at the Rogers Centre on June 29.Mark Blinch/The Globe and Mail

Half an hour before Toronto Blue Jays pitcher Yusei Kikuchi was expected to warm up ahead of a game against the visiting Pittsburgh Pirates in May, he hit a road block. Literally.

Kikuchi was scheduled to start that day, and had driven in on his usual route on the Gardiner Expressway. For reasons that will be explained later, he exited onto Yonge Street toward the Rogers Centre. Except this was the morning of the Toronto Marathon. It’s the day each year on which tens of thousands of runners shut down the downtown core, bringing road traffic to a grinding halt – including, on that morning, Kikuchi.

The first person Kikuchi called wasn’t one of his coaches or trainers. It was his newly hired interpreter, Yusuke Oshima. Within minutes, Oshima set off from the Rogers Centre on foot, to try to find Kikuchi.

Officially, the job Oshima was hired for in April was to help the Japanese-born-and-raised Kikuchi with language translation. Kikuchi speaks conversational English, but when it comes to high-stakes interactions – talks with his teammates and coaches that require precision and nuance, where the smallest mix-up can mean the difference between winning and losing – he relies on the Toronto-born Oshima. If Kikuchi is Tom Selleck’s Mr. Baseball, then Oshima is his real-life Yoji.

But unofficially, Oshima’s job includes helping Kikuchi navigate off the field, too. The pitcher has been in Toronto for little more than a year. So from sunup until sundown, Oshima is glued to his side. He’s part cultural-liaison, part personal assistant, part local navigator – an extra set of eyes and ears for the pitcher as he makes his way around a new city and culture.

“I smooth things over. Make sure he’s comfortable,” Oshima says. “Make sure he’s good to go every fifth day when he pitches.”

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Yusei Kikuchi walks the field with Yusuke Oshima at the Rogers Centre on June 29.Mark Blinch/The Globe and Mail

On any given day, this can range from dealing with English-speaking contractors at Kikuchi’s house, co-ordinating with his son’s school, or scheduling Kikuchi’s medical appointments. He even does Kikuchi’s wife’s banking.

“During the season, it’s really important for me to concentrate on baseball only,” Kikuchi said through a separate interpreter hired by The Globe and Mail. “I don’t need any other stress.”

Case in point: The morning of the marathon. After Oshima was dispatched from the Rogers Centre, the plan was to find Kikuchi’s car on foot, freeing up the pitcher to jog over to the stadium. So Oshima ran around downtown, texting ‘where are you?’ every few minutes.

But then his phone died.

By the time he finally powered up again, Kikuchi had already made his way to the stadium.

Kikuchi recounted this from the dugout at Roger’s Centre one recent afternoon, as Oshima sat next to him, glum-faced. The usually stoic pitcher was dissolving into giggles.

“And then,” he said – gleefully – “everybody had to go look for Yusuke.”

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Yusei Kikuchi works out as Yusuke Oshima looks on at the Rogers Centre on June 29.Mark Blinch/The Globe and Mail

Oshima may be a new hire, but the two already speak with the easy familiarity of siblings. Kikuchi is two years older, and razzes Oshima like a kid brother.

He hired Oshima, he said, because he seemed trustworthy, smart, and easy to be around.

“I have to spend a lot of time with him – more than with my own family,” Kikuchi said. “So it’s fun to joke around with him.”

Oshima interjected to correct the second interpreter.

Make fun of,” he said. “He said fun to make fun of.

Just three months ago, Oshima was working as a sixth-grade teacher in Markham, Ont. Born to Japanese immigrant parents in Toronto, he’d grown up obsessed with baseball – playing the game as a kid, and following both the U.S. and Japanese leagues. He kept up with the game as an adult, working as an assistant coach for the University of Toronto team.

So in late March, when he heard the Jays were looking to hire an interpreter for Kikuchi (whose previous long-time interpreter moved back to Japan), he applied immediately.

He was called for an interview, and then another, and then another. After about a week, he was invited to a video conference with general manager Ross Atkins, along with Kikuchi himself. A few days after that, he was invited to come to the clubhouse. He’d been hired.

“I thought, ‘Oh my god, this is a dream come true.’”

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Mark Blinch/The Globe and Mail

For Kikuchi, it was a good time for a reset as well. When the former Mariner first joined the Jays last year on a three-year, US$36-million contract, it was with some fanfare. He was another star added to a glittering rotation, which already included the recently acquired Kevin Gausman and José Berríos. But that first year was, by all accounts – including his own – a disaster. He produced a dismal 5.19 earned-run average over 100 innings, and was relegated to the bullpen by the end of the season.

So this year, he committed to a fresh start. He’s been working to build confidence. He’s stopped using social media. He’s even got a new look, sporting, in recent weeks, a scruffy new beard.

“Last year, I felt disappointed,” Kikuchi said through a translator. “This year, I want to be in really good form. I want to make sure we win.” He came back during spring training looking like a new player, and this season has posted a 4.24 ERA.

He won’t say whether his new sidekick has anything to do with it. It’s important, he said, for both of them to remain humble.

Which brings us back to the morning of the marathon. Oshima swears that he had warned Kikuchi ahead of time of the road closures.

But whether it was Oshima’s fault, Kikuchi’s fault, or simply lost in translation, depends on who you ask.

“I told him to get off at Spadina,” said Oshima, taking off his ball cap and rubbing his forehead. Talking about it still stresses him out.

Kikuchi looks dubious. He’s asked if it was Oshima’s fault.

The pitcher looks up and answers in English for the first time.

“Oh yeah,” he said, nodding furiously.

“One hundred per cent. One hundred per cent.”

With reporting assistance from Aki Takabatake

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Yusei Kikuchi and Yusuke Oshima at the Rogers Centre on June 29.Mark Blinch/The Globe and Mail

 

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Washington Capitals 3-2 win ends Dallas Stars’ winning streak

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WASHINGTON (AP) — Tom Wilson, Dylan Strome and Taylor Raddysh scored to help the Washington Capitals end the Dallas Stars’ season-opening winning streak at four with a 3-2 victory Thursday night.

Wilson’s goal was his third in three games, Strome his second of the season and Raddysh his first since joining the team in free agency last summer. Charlie Lindgren made 22 saves as the Capitals wrapped up this early homestand with back-to-back wins.

The Stars fell from the ranks of the league’s unbeaten teams despite a short-handed goal by Colin Blackwell and one at even strength from Jason Robertson. Rookie Oskar Bäck set up Blackwell for his first NHL point.

Casey DeSmith was screened on two of the three goals he allowed on 26 shots.

LIGHTNING 4, GOLDEN KNIGHTS 3

TAMPA, Fla. (AP) — Nikita Kucherov scored the winning goal with less than a minute to play just 1:27 after Brandon Hagel had tied it and Tampa Bay rallied to beat Vegas.

Kucherov’s second goal of the game with 55 seconds left was his sixth of the season.

Janis Moser had a goal and two assists for the Lightning, who remain unbeaten. Andrei Vasilevskiy made 22 saves.

Brayden McNabb, Pavel Dorofeyev and Ivan Barbashev had goals for Vegas. Adin Hill turned aside 21 shots.

Jack Eichel, with two assists on Thursday, now has 10 points this season in five games and reached reached double-digit points faster than any other player in Vegas history. He is the 10th U.S.-born player to accomplish the feat.

After Barbashev put Vegas up 3-2 early in the second, Hagel pulled Tampa Bay even at 3 with 2:22 remaining in the third.

BLUE JACKETS 6, SABRES 4

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Kirill Marchenko and Mathieu Olivier each had a goal and an assist and Daniil Tarasov made 21 saves to help Columbus to a win over Buffalo.

Yegor Chinakhov, Adam Fantilli, Zachary Aston-Reese and Damon Severson also scored for Columbus, and Zach Werenski added two assists.

Ryan McLeod, Owen Power and JJ Peterka scored for Buffalo, and Jiri Kulich added his first NHL goal. Devon Lev stopped 19 shots for the Sabres (1-5-1), who have lost two straight road games and five of their first six overall.

CANUCKS 3, FLORIDA 2, OT

SUNRISE, Fla. (AP) — J.T. Miller scored 2:09 into overtime and Vancouver got their first win of the season, beating Florida.

Teddy Blueger and Quinn Hughes had goals for Vancouver, with Kevin Lankinen stopping 26 shots.

Anton Lundell got his fourth goal in the last three games for Florida and Jesper Boqvist also scored for the Panthers, who got 30 saves from Sergei Bobrovsky.

Florida remained without forwards Aleksander Barkov (lower body) and Matthew Tkachuk (illness).

DEVILS 3, SENATORS 1

OTTAWA, Ontario (AP) — Jacob Markstrom stopped 30 shots and lost his shutout bid in the final minutes as New Jersey beat Ottawa.

Erik Haula, Nathan Bastian and Paul Cotter scored for the Devils, who won for the third time in four games and improved to 5-2-0.

The Senators, who were coming off an 8-7 overtime victory against Los Angeles on Monday, struggled to beat Markstrom.

Brady Tkachuk was the only scorer for the Senators, beating Markstrom, with a power-play goal with 65 seconds remaining in the third period.

Anton Forsberg, making his second straight start and hoping to rebound after getting pulled Monday, made 32 saves in the loss.

Haula opened the scoring early in the second period and Bastian added a short-handed goal, giving New Jersey a 2-0 lead after 40 minutes. Cotter scored midway through the third.

RANGERS 5, RED WING 2

DETROIT (AP) — Artemi Panarin had his eighth career hat trick and New York rolled to a victory over Detroit.

Panarin became the first Rangers player to have multiple points in the first four games of a season. He scored twice on the power play. Vincent Trocheck also had a power- play goal and assisted on all of Panarin’s goals.

Jonathan Quick made 29 saves in his season debut. Victor Mancini also scored.

The Rangers have won the last five meetings, including twice this week. New York had a 4-1 home victory over Detroit on Monday night.

Moritz Seider and J.T. Compher scored for Detroit. Red Wings goalie Cam Talbot was pulled in the second period after allowing five goals.

KINGS 4, CANADIENS 1

MONTREAL (AP) — David Rittich made 26 saves a night after being benched in the second period in Toronto, helping road-weary Los Angeles snap a three-game losing streak with a victory over Montreal.

Los Angeles improved to 2-1-2 on a season-opening, seven-game trip necessitated by arena renovations.

Rittich rebounded after allowing four goals on 14 shots in a 6-2 loss to the Maple Leafs. Alex Laferriere, Mikey Anderson, Andreas Englund and Adrian Kempe scored.

Justin Barron scored for Montreal (2-3-0). Sam Montembeault stopped 28 shots. He made a save on Kevin Fiala on a penalty shot.

BLUES 1, ISLANDERS 0, OT

ST. LOUIS (AP) — Joel Hofer made 34 saves and assisted on Jake Neighbours’ goal at 2:04 of overtime in St. Louis victory over New York.

Hofer had his second career shutout in his and the team’s second overtime victory of the season.

Philip Broberg carried the puck into the New York zone and made a centering pass to Neighbours for the winner.

Islanders goalie Ilya Sorkin made 29 saves.

Blues defenseman Nick Leddy sat out because of a lower-body injury, the first game he has missed this season. Leddy played in all 82 games last season.

OILERS 4, PREDATORS 2

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Brett Kulak scored twice and Connor McDavid added his first goal of the season to lead Edmonton to a victory over reeling Nashville.

Jeff Skinner also scored and Calvin Pickard made 25 saves for the defending Western Conference champion Oilers, who have won consecutive games after beginning the season with a three-game skid.

Filip Forsberg and Jonathan Marchessault scored and Juuse Saros made 32 saves for Nashville (0-4).

Forsberg’s goal midway through the first period gave Nashville its first lead of the season. That lasted less than six minutes before Kulak tied it.

Kulak sealed it with an empty-netter in the final minute for the defenseman’s first career two-goal game.

BLACKHAWKS 4, SHARKS 2

CHICAGO (AP) — Tyler Bertuzzi and Nick Foligno each scored a power-play goal, and Chicago beat San Jose.

Taylor Hall and Jason Dickinson also scored for Chicago. Connor Bedard and Teuvo Teravainen each had two assists.

Hall, who missed most of last season because of right knee surgery, put the Blackhawks in front 4:20 into the first period. It was Hall’s first goal since Nov. 5 and No. 267 for his career.

Tyler Toffoli and Fabian Zetterlund scored for San Jose, which trailed 3-0 early in the second. William Eklund and Mikael Granlund had two assists each.

The Sharks dropped to 0-2-2 under Ryan Warsofsky, who was promoted to head coach in June.

Petr Mrazek had 20 saves for Chicago, and Vitek Vanecek made 23 stops for San Jose.

KRAKEN 6, FLYERS 4

SEATTLE (AP) — Eeli Tolvanen, Jordan Eberle, and Shane Wright scored three goals in less than three minutes in the second period and Seattle held off a Philadelphia rally in a victory.

Tolvanen’s goal broke a 2-2 tie at the 14:57 mark. Eberle made it a two-goal game with a goal at 17:44. Eight seconds later, Wright scored to give Seattle a three-goal lead.

Jared McCann tied the game at 2-2 with the first of Seattle’s four second-period goals.

Cam York and Jamie Drysdale scored to pull Philadelphia within 5-4 in the third period, but Oliver Bjorkstrand responded with a goal to push Seattle’s lead to two with just over five minutes left in the game.

Scott Laughton scored twice for the Flyers in the first period, while Brandon Montour scored one in for the Kraken.

Chandler Stephenson had an assist in his 500th NHL game. Seattle’s Philipp Grubauer had 21 saves.

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Canada’s Dabrowski, New Zealand’s Routliffe out of Japan Women’s Open after walkover

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OSAKA, Japan – Canada’s Gabriela Dabrowski and New Zealand’s Erin Routliffe are out of the Japan Women’s Open tennis tournament.

Spain’s Cristina Bucsa and Romania’s Monica Niculescu advanced to the final on Thursday by way of walkover.

The fourth seeds were supposed to play the top-seeded Dabrowski and Routliffe in the semifinals.

Bucsa and Niculescu will next face third-seeded Ena Shibahara of Japan and Laura Siegemund of Germany in the final.

Dabrowski and Routliffe defeated Japan’s Shuko Aoyama and Eri Hozumi in the quarterfinals 6-2, 6-4 on Wednesday to advance.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 17, 2024.

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Mountain West commissioner says she’s heartbroken over turmoil surrounding San Jose State volleyball

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LAS VEGAS (AP) — Mountain West Conference Commissioner Gloria Nevarez said Thursday the forfeitures that volleyball teams are willing to take to avoid playing San Jose State is “not what we celebrate in college athletics” and that she is heartbroken over what has transpired this season surrounding the Spartans and their opponents.

Four teams have canceled games against San Jose State: Boise State, Southern Utah, Utah State and Wyoming, with none of the schools explicitly saying why they were forfeiting.

A group of Nevada players issued a statement saying they will not take the floor when the Wolf Pack are scheduled to host the Spartans on Oct. 26. They cited their “right to safety and fair competition,” though their school reaffirmed Thursday that the match is still planned and that state law bars forfeiture “for reasons related to gender identity or expression.”

All those schools, except Southern Utah, are in the Mountain West. New Mexico, also in the MWC, went ahead with its home match on Thursday night, which was won by the Spartans, 3-1, the team’s first victory since Sept. 24.

“It breaks my heart because they’re human beings, young people, student-athletes on both sides of this issue that are getting a lot of national negative attention,” Nevarez said in an interview with The Associated Press at Mountain West basketball media days. “It just doesn’t feel right to me.”

Republican governors of Idaho, Nevada, Utah and Wyoming have made public statements in support of the cancellations, citing a need for fairness in women’s sports. Former President Donald Trump, the GOP nominee in this year’s presidential race, this week referenced an unidentified volleyball match when he was asked during a Fox News town hall about transgender athletes in women’s sports.

“I saw the slam, it was a slam. I never saw a ball hit so hard, hit the girl in the head,” Trump replied before he was asked what can be done. “You just ban it. The president bans it. You just don’t let it happen.”

After Trump’s comment, San Diego State issued a statement that said “it has been incorrectly reported that an San Diego State University student-athlete was hit in the face with a volleyball during match play with San Jose State University. The ball bounced off the shoulder of the student-athlete, and the athlete was uninjured and did not miss a play.”

San Jose State has not made any direct comments about the politicians’ “fairness” references, and Nevarez did not go into details.

“I’m learning a lot about the issue,” Nevarez said. “I don’t know a lot of the language yet or the science or the understanding nationally of how this issue plays out. The external influences are so far on either side. We have an election year. It’s political, so, yeah, it feels like a no-win based on all the external pressure.”

The cancellations could mean some teams will not qualify for the conference tournament Nov. 27-30 in Las Vegas, where the top six schools are slated to compete for the league championship.

“The student-athlete (in question) meets the eligibility standard, so if a team does not play them, it’s a forfeit, meaning they take a loss,” Nevarez said.

Ahead of the Oct. 26 match in Reno. Nevada released a statement acknowledging that “a majority of the Wolf Pack women’s volleyball team” had decided to forfeit against San Jose State. The school said only the university can take that step but any player who decides not to play would face no punishment.

___

AP college sports:

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