Yoshida was on the bench at a game against the Cleveland Guardians at Fenway Park in Boston on Wednesday. She failed to make the starting lineup for two consecutive games following Wednesday. Having failed to secure a chance to play as a substitute, Yoshida had to watch her team lose 4-5 to Cleveland from the bench.
He was absent on the day just out of consideration. "I gave him another day off. I had a terrible day two days ago, so I thought it would be better to take another day off mentally," Boston manager Alex Cora told local reporters ahead of the game. "Yoshida is ready for tomorrow," he said, vowing to return to the starting lineup at the Pittsburgh Pirates match on Tuesday. "As I am the team's judge, I will rest well and give good results from the next game," Yoshida said.
Yoshida has only posted a batting average of 0.215 with one homer and eight RBIs in 18 games this season. Notably, he has displayed such performance even though he has played as designated hitter in all but one game.
Yoshida has been 0-for-10 in the last two games, especially against Cleveland on the 17th.
In fact, Yoshida was sluggish early in the last season as well. Having failed to properly prepare for the season due to her participation in the World Baseball Classic, Yoshida suffered a slump, with the batting average of only 0.167 in the first 13 games since her debut.
Since then, however, he displayed formidable batting performance, and his batting average has risen vertically to the point where he once emerged as a candidate for the top batter. However, he failed to keep his batting average of .300 due to a last-minute pacedown. Despite this, he displayed remarkable performance with a batting average of 0.289 with 15 homers and 72 RBIs in 140 games.
Unlike batting, Yoshida, who had failed in defense, allowed Boston to play as designated hitter ahead of this season. Despite eased pressure on defense, Boston is still struggling as its pace has not improved.
While playing for the Orix Buffaloes, Yoshida had a batting average of 0.327 during seven seasons and was a top-rated hitter with 133 homers and 467 RBIs. To recruit Yoshida, the Boston Red Sox gave him a five-year, 90 million-dollar contract.
On the contrary, Yoshida's poor performance is compared to that of San Francisco's Lee Jung-hoo, who has been adjusting well since the beginning of the first season. Lee signed a six-year, 113 million-dollar contract with San Francisco in December last year, surpassing Yoshida's best contract as an Asian batter.
Lee does not see the same "April slump" as Yoshida. He seemed to have suffered a slump in the first few games, but he has already recovered his pace and posted a remarkable batting average of 0.286 with one homer, five RBIs, six walks and nine strikeouts. Notably, he has had hits in 10 consecutive games recently, matching the record of Kang Jung-ho and Kim Hyun-soo having hits in consecutive seasons as Korean Major Leaguers.
When Lee Jung-hoo joined the Major League, Yoshida was the player whom he compared the most. For now, "Korea's genius hitter" is dominating "Japan's genius hitter" this season.
BY: 토토사이트
