Foreign ballplayers in Japan have had their words misunderstood for as long as there have been foreign ballplayers in Japan.
It doesn't happen all the time, and sometimes the results are humorous, such as many years ago when a former Lotte batter asked interpreter Toyo Kunimitsu for his batting tee, only to have Kunimitsu ask if he wanted sugar and lemon with it.
Linguistically, English and Japanese just don't always play nice together, and mixups are bound to happen from time to time.