A Shot in the Arm

Yes, Anthony Kay pitched six innings of one-run ball in a 3-1 White Sox win over the Twins on a beautiful Memorial Day afternoon on the South Side. And, yes, Munetaka Murakami and Drew Romo both left the yard to power the offense. Oh, and Rikuu Nishida, a ball of nervous energy, if there ever was one. What a debut. The 5’6”, 25-year old rookie barely got the ball out of the infield in the fourth inning to record his first major-league hit, but, so what? Nishida, playing in the (very big, literally and figuratively) shadows of Harold Baines and Jermaine Dye, threw himself into the hearts of Sox fans by throwing a strike to nail Orlando Arcia at home as Arcia tried to score from second base on a two-out single by Alex Jackson. Wait, there’s more. Nishida recorded seven putouts on the day, the most ever by a Sox outfielder in his first game. Did I mention Nishida lost a shoe in making the throw or that he nearly made a great diving catch in the seventh inning? Or that Nishida wears number 51, in honor of Ichiro Suzuki? I didn’t find that out until listening to Nishida’s postgame comments. All game, I kept thinking of Terry Forster, shall we say a slightly larger number 51? Yesterday, it worked either way.