Yusei Kikuchi Shows His Nasty Stuff and a World Class Intensity In Astros Debut — Why This Fighter Fits Right Into Jim Crane Land

As Houston Astros manager Joe Espada gives his postgame press conference in the interview room, general manager Dana Brown is in the hallway outside, slinging his backpack over his shoulder, still wearing the sports coat he came to work in. Brown did his talking earlier in the week when he pulled off a trade for veteran starter Yusei Kikuchi that most Astros fans (and certainly the loudest ones on Twitter) seem to hate. It’s not time for Brown to take a victory lap yet (he’s just heading home), but as first impressions go, Kikuchi certainly delivers all the GM could have hoped and more.

If Kikuchi had been taking the SAT on this night, he would have been admitted to any Ivy League school he wanted. There is passing a test. And then there’s this.

It’s not just that Kikuchi strikes out 11 Tampa Bay Rays in five and two third innings, including eight straight at one point to tie a franchise record for consecutive strikeouts in a game. It’s not just that Kikuchi displays the nasty stuff that convinced Brown the Japanese left-hander could be a difference maker. It’s not even how easily and seemingly effortlessly he makes the adjustment to throwing more changeups (and many fewer curveballs) that the Astros pitching braintrust asks him to pull off.

It is also his competitiveness. His fight. His resolve. His guts.

“He’s intense,” Espada says of his first impressions of Kikuchi. “He’s got a little bit of a red ass in him. He did. Down the stairs, he had his notes, like a little boxer head down. He was locked in. He’s pretty intense. I like it. I love it. He fits right in.”

In trading for Yusei Kikuchi, it turns out the Astros may have gotten another junkyard dog. Another battler. Another laser focused competitive soul to slide right into the most mentally tough, and playoff proven, clubhouse in all of baseball.

If the Astros keep getting this version of Kikuchi, this beat up and flawed Astros team just may have a chance to go to another World Series after all. That is what it’s all about of course. Winning now. Going for another ring if any opportunity for it is there. Any general manager of Astros owner Jim Crane understands this by now. Dana Brown certainly knows.

There is no waiting for next year. No punting for a chance down the road. Not with this Astros’ Golden Era window still open. You’d better do everything you can possibly do to win this year if you want to have a job next season. Crane’s demands are unrelenting and uncompromisable.

Astros owner Jim Crane is the closest thing baseball has had to George Steinbrenner without the crazy. Driven by the commitment he feels to Astros fans, Crane brings the type of relentless, unblinking pursuit of winning that Steinbrenner had. Crane just does it without the rash decision making that often derailed the Yankees during the Steinbrenner years (especially the first 17 years of The Boss’ fire-happy reign).

By trading away three potential young Major League regulars in outfielder Joey Loperfido, rookie starter Jake Bloss and minor league infielder Will Wagner for the 33-year-old Kikuchi, the Astros sent the message to Jose Altuve, Alex Bregman, Justin Verlander and everyone else in that clubhouse that they’re going for it. As usual.

Dana Brown is all in. Did he pay too much for Kikuchi? It would seem so. But if the Astros win this death race of an American League West battle, get into the playoffs again (while both the Seattle Mariners and Texas Rangers are left out) and make their eighth straight American League Championship Series with Kikuchi having some big moments, the equation changes.

It’s unlikely that Loperfido, Bloss or Wagner will ever even make an All-Star team. They’re good young players with many seasons of control left, but Dana Brown didn’t give away future superstars. Maybe having this intense, Astros retooled version of Kikuchi will be worth it.

Yusei Kikuchi’s Quick Adjustments

Start one is certainly encouraging. Kikuchi gives up two runs in his first six pitches of the game, surrendering a no doubt home run to Rays outfielder Dylan Carlson, who hadn’t hit a home run in a span of 215 at-bats. Some boos in Minute Maid greet that shot. But rather than get shook, the Astros’ new veteran pitcher leans on that adjustment the Astros staff suggested and starts methodically cutting down the Rays.

He uses his changeup and slider to make his 95 MPH-plus fastballs even more effective. By the time, Kikuchi walks off the mound in the sixth inning, the mood in the ballpark has completely changed. Astros fans largely rise to give him an ovation. Kikuchi tips his new Astros cap to the crowd.

“I’m appreciative of that,” Kikuchi says later in the clubhouse in Japanese, his words relayed by a translator. “I know I was part of a big trade and I wanted to do my best today and perform well. I think we got off to a good start today.

“I’m just glad we won the game.”

It will take more than this 3-2 win over the Rays for the Astros to win this trade. But Kikuchi’s mental toughness in coming back from that early blast to his confidence, his fight, reveals just what Dana Brown and the Astros wanted to see. Kikuchi retreats to those back of the dugout steps after every inning he pitches, pulls out his notes and examines them again, looking for any edge.

This guy already acts like an Astro. Like a winner.

“He communicates really well,” Victor Caratini, who catches Kikuchi on this night, says. “He speaks really good English. Obviously, he has a translator. But we’re just trying to get to the same page and communicate as well as possible.”

Yusei Kikuchi’s stuff plays in any language. It’s why Dana Brown specifically targeted him on the trade market. But his makeup may end up meaning almost as much. The Astros got another intense dude, another baseball battler. Another winning player with a steely commitment to getting it done.