The Japan Series champion DeNA BayStars lost 4-3 in Hiroshima to the Carp Wednesday. Trevor Bauer (4-8) allowed all four Hiroshima runs on six hits including a pair of doubles and his Central League-leading ninth home run, a solo shot by first-year Carp Elehuris Montero.
Bauer has been able to get strikeouts, and leads qualified pitchers in whiffs per nine inning because the CL’s strikeout leader, first-year Hanshin Tigers right-hander Jon Duplantier, hasn’t thrown enough innings to qualify. Bauer’s ERA sank to an NPB-worst 4.06.
Murderer’s row
In other news, now that former Marine lefty Dan Serafini has been convicted of murdering his father in law, two of the people I’ve interviewed in my writing career have been found guilty of murder. He was also charged with attempted murder of his mother in law, who was injured and later died of an apparent suicide.
After Serafini was arrested, I recalled the times I spent with him while he pitched with the Marines.
The other was another Marines pitcher, Hiroshi Ogawa, whom I spoke to in 1996 when he was a Lotte coach, about his experience working under Bobby Valentine in 1995.
In September 2005, Ogawa was sentenced to life in prison for murdering a 67-year-old woman. Ogawa, who was deeply in debt to loan sharks, had gone to see his boss about a loan and killed the housekeeper when she denied him admittance.
As far as I know, those are the only murderers I’ve ever spoken to. The husband of one of my mother’s teaching colleagues assassinated San Francisco mayor George Moscone and San Francisco councilman Harvey Milk in 1978, but I don’t believe we ever met.
