JUPITER, Fla. -Koji Uehara emerged slowly from the Orioles' dugout, walking past a group of Japanese photographers on his way to the mound. When he arrived there, he circled the mound, stopped to pick up the rosin bag and stepped up to the pitching rubber.
He calmly threw a few warm-up tosses to catcher Gregg Zaun before signaling that he was ready. At 1:20 yesterday afternoon, Uehara fired his first pitch, a fastball to Florida Marlins outfielder John Raynor that was called a strike.
It was the start of a successful day for the Orioles' first Japanese player, who threw two scoreless innings in facing opposing major league hitters for the first time.
"All I felt was joy," Uehara said through his translator, Jiwon Bang. "I enjoyed it. To be able to stand on that mound was joyful."
For one day, Uehara was everything the Orioles hoped he would be when they signed him to a two-year, $10 million deal in January. Limiting himself to fastballs and forkballs, Uehara threw strikes on 22 of his 32 pitches. He walked Marlins veteran Jorge Cantu, but that came after a 10-pitch at-bat during which Cantu fouled off several offerings before taking a close pitch inside.
The one hit Uehara gave up was Cody Ross' blooper that left fielder Luke Scott lost in the sun. With men on first and second and no outs, Uehara sandwiched strikeouts of Gaby Sanchez and Alejandro De Aza around a lineout by Robert Andino. Uehara struck out three of the eight batters he faced.
"We gave him a four-out inning, and he didn't blink at all," Orioles manager Dave Trembley said. "He seems to be able to throw his fastball where he wants it, when he wants it. It's like that's an automatic pitch for him. He's pretty tunneled. He doesn't get wrapped up in all this attention. ... He's pitched in a lot of big games. Lord knows, this thing today was just elementary school for him. This was nothing."
Uehara, a 33-year-old right-hander who spent 10 seasons with the Yomiuri Giants, Japan's version of the New York Yankees, said he wasn't nervous. He went through his pre-game routine, jogging up and down the warning track while his teammates were stretching. His teammates mostly left him alone in the dugout, though they noticed that the pitcher's demeanor never changed.
