Tsuyoshi Wada was pitching a complete game against the Yokohama BayStars on Sunday and there wasn't anything anyone could do about it. Not Fukuoka Softbank Hawks pitching coach Tadashi Sugimoto and not the BayStars.
"You have 35 pitches left today," was the message Wada said Sugimoto relayed to him before the seventh inning. "But we had the lead and I wanted to complete the game," Wada told reporters. "So I told Sugimoto-san, 'I need only 30 pitches to finish.' "
He nearly pulled it off, finishing off the BayStars after 32 more pitches in the 3-1 win.