PORT ST. LUCIE, Fla. -- Kaz Matsui stepped into the batter's box
precisely at 1:20 p.m. ET on Monday and wasted little time getting
acquainted with Major League pitching.
He swung at Jeff Suppan's first offering, sending a vicious line-drive
into the bleachers along the right-field line at Tradition Field. Matsui
would see four pitches that first at-bat, eventually popping out in foul
territory just in front of the visiting dugout.
The confrontation lasted less than two minutes and had no bearing in New
York's 6-4 victory over St. Louis. Yet, it signaled the beginning of a
new era for the Mets, one that was delayed eight days while Matsui
continues to recover from a lacerated fingertip on his right hand.
The switch-hitting Matsui served as the designated hitter Monday,
relegated to batting left-handed until his finger is sufficiently healed.
Yet the buzz he created before and during the game was exactly what the
Mets were hoping for when they signed the Japanese star in December.
"It was great," Matsui said. "I was a little nervous here and there.
But my name was called in the stands and the fans reacted and I was
grateful. After I came back to the dugout, even before I went up for
that first at-bat, people were wishing me good luck. They [his teammates]
gave me a lot of pep talks."
Matsui would step to the plate again in the third inning, 36 minutes after
his first at-bat ended. This time he worked Suppan to a 2-2 count before
lining out to second. The Cardinals eventually brought in left-hander
Chris Narveson, ending Matsui's day.
"Obviously the second at-bat, I had better timing," Matsui said. "But I
went up there [prior to the first at-bat] thinking the first good pitch
I'm going to attack. I had that planned. I think of myself as typically
a first pitch kind of guy. But today was special. I was happy in the box."
Suppan didn't seem surprised that Matsui was so aggressive.
"He looks to me, wherever I was trying to go, like he was making contact,
" Suppan said. "I know it's the same tendency with [Seattle's] Ichiro
[Suzuki]. The few pitches that I threw him, there's a similarity in that
where I'm throwing it, he's putting the bat there."
The Mets had to petition the Commissioner's office and get permission from
the Cardinals in order to use Matsui as the designated hitter. He will be
the designated hitter again Tuesday when the Mets face the Marlins at
Tradition Field. However, Matsui won't start because the Fish have lefty
Darren Oliver starting.
Manager Art Howe will also use Matsui as a designated hitter in a 'B' game
Wednesday morning against the Cardinals in Jupiter, but there is no
timetable for when he will get out on the field or bat right-handed.
"We're not in a rush," Howe said. "We're still quite a ways from him
throwing the ball like he has to. Defensively I don't see a problem there,
though."
Matsui said his finger is getting better each day. He says he's eager to
show people how hard he can throw the ball and how he plays defensively,
but isn't putting a time frame on his return. Though there is less than a
month before the regular season begins, Matsui says he isn't concerned,
adding that there is plenty of time for him to make any of the necessary
defensive adjustments.
And like Howe, he's also not putting a timetable on when he'll be able to
bat right-handed.
"The tip of my finger, when I make contact, stings sometimes," Matsui said
of batting right-handed. "It's getting better gradually, and gradually my
swing is coming back to me. It's difficult to say when, though. Sometime
soon."
It would be difficult to imagine Matsui causing more of a stir, though,
than he did on Monday. The nearly two-dozen members of the Japanese media
that are in Port St. Lucie covering him were at the park early, even
videotaping the lineup card with his name on it that Howe had posted in
the clubhouse. Some of them even argued about who would get to position
their cameras in the prime locations around Tradition Field.
It made for an interesting afternoon, one that Matsui says he won't forget.
At least until Opening Day comes along
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