Marwin Gonzalez has played baseball in a lot of different places and on a lot of different stages. From rookie-level ball in Arizona and the winter leagues in his native Venezuela to various levels of the minor leagues in different cities in North America and the World Series in Houston.
The only thing that has not changed for Gonzalez is the goal, the same one that still drives him now with the Orix Buffaloes in the Japan Series.
“You want to win,” the Buffaloes infielder told The Japan Times at Kyocera Dome Osaka on Sunday. “Even at playing cards. It does not matter where you are. This is a great league, high level. I will say it’s right there with the big leagues, they are the two top baseball leagues in the world.
“It’s always great to win. It doesn’t matter what you are playing. It could be dominoes, cards, whatever. So it would be special to win here.”
The Japan Series is tied after two games after Gonzalez’s Buffaloes rebounded from an 8-0 loss in the opening game with an 8-0 win in Game 2 on Sunday night.
Orix lefty Hiroya Miyagi threw six scoreless innings in the win a night after Hanshin scored seven runs against ace Yoshinobu Yamamoto.
“I pitched with a good tempo and got help from the fielders around me,” Miyagi said.
Gonzalez put the game out of reach with a pinch-hit, three-run double in the seventh. The Buffaloes were outhit 13-2 in Game 1 and turned the tables with 12 hits to the Tigers’ 4 in Game 2. The Buffaloes had three extra-base hits in the victory, an RBI triple by Masahiro Nishino in the third, Gonzalez’s double in the seventh and a two-bagger by Tomoya Mori in the eighth.
The Buffaloes and Tigers only faced each other three times during the regular season, and Gonzalez, who is in his first season in Japan, is fine tuning his approach as he goes along.
“Most of the guys you haven't seen and you haven't had an at-bat against them,” he said. “It's a little difficult, but you have to make the adjustments.”
Before coming to Japan, Gonzalez spent 11 seasons in MLB, mostly with the Houston Astros, where he played from 2012 to 2018. He also spent part of the 2021 season in Houston. He hit .303 with 23 homers and 90 RBIs for the 2017 Astros, who won the American League pennant. He then homered during the World Series, which Houston won in seven games over the Los Angeles Dodgers.
That 2017 Astros team was later engulfed in a sign-stealing scandal that, for many, tainted its championship run. Gonzalez was the first position player to publicly apologize for the scandal, expressing remorse in comments to reporters while with the Minnesota Twins in 2020.
Gonzalez joined the Buffaloes this year, with the team looking for help to offset the loss of outfielder Masataka Yoshida, who joined the Boston Red Sox through the posting system in the offseason.
He hit .217 and had 12 home runs in 84 games, but said the season was a positive experience overall.
"It was a little bit rough, but it was fun," he said. "I had a lot of fun. I enjoy every single moment here in Japan — the fans, the game, the culture, the food — everything was great.
“But it takes a little bit to get used to the pitching sequences and all of that. Even watching videos is not enough, because they won't pitch you the way they pitch the Japanese guys. So it's a little bit tough in that sense. It takes time. You gotta face them two, three times. Even after two times it’s not enough, because it's only two games. But it was fun. Every part of the season was fun.”
Gonzalez said making adjustments was an important part of the process, and was pleased with the way his approach at the plate evolved over the course of the season, specifically how he managed to stop chasing pitches out of the zone.
“Late in the season, the patience and the ability to see the pitches better was different than in the first half of the season,” he said. “I got hurt for two months, too, that was kind of tough. But I would say the way I was able to lay off some pitches (improved), for example, the split is their main pitch, and I was able to do that late in the season.”
He saw one of the best splitters in Japan, maybe in the world, when the Buffaloes faced Chiba Lotte Marines ace Roki Sasaki this season.
“Obviously he's one of the best pitchers in the league, I would say top two with Yoshinobu (Yamamoto),” Gonzalez said. “He is already a superstar, but he is going to be something special in the future.”
The Buffaloes are in the Japan Series for the third straight season and fighting to win their second straight title. Gonzalez, who already has a World Series ring, is eager to add more jewelry to his collection.
The road will get tougher now, with the Buffaloes going from hosts to visitors as the series shifts to Koshien Stadium for the next three games.
Hanshin fans are famous for their passion, and after making their presence felt at Kyocera Dome, the intensity will ratchet up another level at Koshien, where the Tigers led NPB with an average home attendance of 41,064.
"I'm excited," Gonzalez said. "It's going to be a good vibe there. A little crazy, because their fans are something else, they're different. They have a lot of energy. It's no secret, it was 40,000 people every day during the regular season. So we expect it to be a little bit crazy, and it's always good to play with it like that."
