"He looks good in red, doesn't he?" asked Hiroshima Carp manager Marty Brown about his new center fielder, Alex Ochoa, prior to a game at Tokyo Dome last week.

The four-year (2003-2006) veteran with the Chunichi Dragons was recalled to the Central League by the Carp after having been released by the Boston Red Sox, and he could not be happier to be back in Japan.

Ochoa did not have his contract renewed by the blue-shirted Dragons last winter and hooked on for one more chance at the major leagues with the Red Sox. But he found himself caught in the middle during spring training player transactions, getting dropped to Triple-A Pawtucket before the current season began.

"I was the fifth outfielder," said Ochoa. "They decided to keep only four and sent me down."

In Rhode Island, he was a 35-year-old veteran playing (or more often not playing) with younger guys being counted on for the future in Beantown. It was not long after he was released when the Carp called and invited him to give Japanese baseball another shot.

Ochoa wasted no time showing Japan is where he belongs. In his fifth game back, he took it out on his old Chunichi teammates on July 5 in his return to Nagoya Dome, going 4-for-5 with a home run.

In the 17 games he's played since putting on the red Hiroshima cap and pinstripes, Ochoa is batting .410 with three home runs, and the last-place Carp are hoping he can help the team make a run at third place and a berth in the Central League Climax Series.

"I don't think he'll be hitting .400 when the season ends," said Carp coach Jeff Livesey. "But we're sure enjoying it now."

The fans in Hiroshima also like watching their new middle outfielder, one of the best all-around players in the game today.

He plays exciting defense, has a cannon of a throwing arm, can steal bases and is a versatile hitter, as proven by the fact he has recorded a cycle twice in his career — once each in the majors and here in Japan.

"I did it in my 17th big league game (in 1995) with the New York Mets at Veterans Stadium in Philadelphia," Ochoa recalled recently.

He also managed a single, double, triple and homer in a game against Yomiuri at Tokyo Dome in 2005.

Ochoa is a proven winner, too. He was on the 2002 Anaheim Angels team that won the World Series, and he helped the Dragons win the Central League pennant in 2004 and 2006.

Now he's looking to go to the Japan Series with the Carp before retiring and, as his manager said, he's looking good in red.

Moreover, Ochoa is wearing uniform No. 43, the same numeral worn by Brown during his years (1992-1994) as a Hiroshima player.

Asked if he gave Ochoa the number, the skipper said, "I didn't give him anything, but he'd better wear it with pride and honor."

He's doing that for sure.

Cleaning up last week's column: In that July 15 segment about Matt White, the new foreign pitcher with the Yokohama BayStars who bought land from his aunt in Massachusetts and discovered he had $2.4 billion worth of slate rock on the property, I wrote he had 24 tons of the stuff. It should have read 24 million tons.

Darn those zeros!

As to the question of the same guy being the winning and losing pitcher in a game, several fans e-mailed their ideas of how it could happen, but the following from reader Shu Akatani seems to be the easiest to understand:

Presume you are the starting pitcher for the home team, and the game is tied after you complete the top half of the fifth inning at which time the game is interrupted by rain and subsequently suspended due to the bottom half of the inning not completed.

The continuation of the game is set at a later date.

During this time lag, you get traded to the opposing team and come in to pitch from the bottom of the fifth inning against your old team. If you proceed to give up any runs in the bottom of the fifth inning and wind up losing to your old team without ever tying or going ahead in the later innings, you will end up the losing pitcher.

You will also be the winning pitcher because you have completed five innings and left the game tied and eligible for the win if your team can go ahead in their half of the inning.

Readers David Coates, Kane Mason and Charles Maurer also sent in similar but longer explanations. Thanks, guys.

The Baseball Bullet-In will take a break next week, the fifth Sunday of the month, so no column. We'll be back again on Aug. 5.

Contact Wayne Graczyk at: [email protected]