On April 6, 2004, in his first major league appearance with the San Diego Padres, Akinori Otsuka gave up an RBI single off the bat of Robin Ventura in the bottom of the ninth to pick up the loss in a 5-4 defeat at the hands of the Dodgers.

Over the next six weeks Otsuka would surrender just one more run, and game by game the Padres leaned on the 32-year-old from Chiba more as he solidified himself as the primary setup man for the team.

In his seventh appearance Otsuka picked up his fourth hold versus the Giants, going 1 1/3 innings, getting four outs on 14 pitches. It was the first of four games in which Otsuka didn’t surrender a single hit. In two of those games he picked up his first two major league wins in, against Arizona and in the first of a four game set versus Montreal.

In that game versus the Expos, Otsuka did give up a single to center by Juan Rivera, but then easily retired the next three batters, picking up his fifth hold in the  2-1 win. The Padres swept the series and led the division with a 14-9 record heading into a three game series with the Mets.

Prior to being posted in 2003 Otsuka, despite having a solid career  in Osaka and  later with  Chunichi, wasn’t a highly sought-after player. In 2002 he’d asked to be posted and was criticized by teammate Norihiro Nakamura, who himself would ask to be posted just three years later. But in 2002 no team bid for Otsuka’s services.

The following year he was posted again and this time Padres won via a $300,000 bid. He was signed  to a two-year $1.5 MM contract.

Despite the relative low interest, the word on Otsuka spread quickly and going into the final game of his first month in the U.S. his ERA stood at 0.75.

With Trevor Hoffman having pitched three days in a row manager Bruce Bochy  handed Otsuka the ball in the bottom of the ninth to face the heart of the Mets order for his first career save opportunity. Otsuka responded by striking out Mike Cameron on four pitches, and then got Mike Piazza and Karim Garcia on a ground ball to short and a fly to shallow center to close the game.

With Hoffman back the following day, Otsuka was due to return to his eighth inning domain, but just before the inning started Mets manager Art Howe  approached the batter’s box, conferencing with the home-plate umpire, Alfonso Marquez, and the first-base umpire, Rick Reed. Howe put the game under a formal protest.

Howe’s contention was that Otsuka was pulling his right hand too far out of his glove before returning it, and then delivering the ball toward home-plate. Howe’s move brought Bochy out on the field, but after clarifying what Howe was doing, he calmly returned to the dugout, shrugging his shoulders and shaking his head as the announcers scrambled to get to the bottom of what had happened.

With the Mets standing at 9-15, its young star, second baseman Jose Reyes  out indefinitely with a strained right hamstring, and its own high-dollar Japanese rookie, shortstop Kaz Matsui in the midst of a 3-for-22 slump, its possible Howe was looking to give his team a desperately needed edge.

However Otsuka responded by again putting down the Mets 1-2-3, striking out Todd Zeile to finish the inning. Hoffman came on to pick up his seventh save for the Padres sixth straight win.

Following the game Howe defended the move, telling reporters that third base coach Matt Galante had noticed the illegal delivery during Friday’s game. On Sunday Mets General Manager Jim Duquette sent a report to Sandy Alderson, Major League Baseball’s executive vice president for baseball operations.

When asked about the situation after Saturday’s game Otsuka told reporters through an interpreter ”I did the same thing in Japan. If it’s illegal, I’ll change my mechanics. It doesn’t matter.”

Three days later the league announced it had denied the protest.

Otsuka would give up a triple off the bat of Hee-seop Choi to surrender just his second run of the season on May 7. He would go on to finish the season 7-2, picking up 34 holds over 73 appearances, coming in third in the Rookie-of-the-Year balloting behind Jason Bay and teammate Khalil Greene, but in front of countryman Matsui (sixth) and Matt Holiday (fifth).

Illustration by Ted Walker