UD AL-BAYDA, United Arab Emirates – Facing a “win or take a long, sad flight home” situation with the game tied 1-1 in the middle of the eighth, the Mid East Falcons and manager Dennis Cook needed a run.
A great start from Nippon Professional Baseball veteran Kazuki Yabuta kept the Falcons in the game. Then came the eighth, where using a combination Baseball United’s unique rules, timely hitting, and a strikeout, Cook and the Falcons scored four runs in the bottom of the eighth and then got a clutch strike out of Lou Helmig, who led off the top of the ninth for the Mumbai Cobras, utilizing the fireball to end the inning and the game, getting a 5-1 win and forcing a deciding Game 3 in the United Series.
Yabuta attacked the strike zone aggressively with fastballs his first time through the lineup, allowing just two hits through the first five innings, one of them a solo homer in the second to Mumbai’s Raul Shah. The Johns Hopkins University alum took Yabuta’s second pitch over the left field wall to give the Cobras a 1-0 lead.
After allowing a single to the next batter, Gedionne Marlin, Yabuta settled in and didn’t allow a hit through his next 4 2/3 innings, and finished the game having allowed one run on three hits, walking three and striking out seven over 6 1/3 and mixing in an effective 12-6 curveball for first-pitch strikes and as an out pitch in two-strike counts.
“He’s done good ever since he’s been here. I think that’s his fourth start,” Cook said of Yabuta, who threw 304 innings over 123 appearances with the Hiroshima Toyo Carp of NPB. “He does have the curveball. He can mix it in later on the second, third time through the lineup. Just throws a ton of strikes, works fast, and gets after people.”
The Falcons evened the score on a solo homer by Gregori Cano in the bottom of the third, and the game stayed deadlocked at one until the bottom of the eighth.
With Gregori Cano leading off, Cobras manager Mariano Duncan called for a fireball, which would have ended the inning had Cano struck out, but he ripped a double to the left center field gap, and Carlos Garzon advanced him to third with a sacrifice bunt back to the mound. After Major League Baseball veteran Alejandro de Aza drew a walk to give the Falcons a first-and-third with no outs, up came Munenori Kawasaki, and the punch-and-judy hitting second baseman took a 2-2 pitch on the outer half the other way and deep, bouncing it off the turf in the left field corner and over the wall for a ground-rule double, scoring Cano for a 2-1 lead.
“I don’t think too much. Just swing. Just swing,” Kawasaki told World Baseball Network after the game with a smile. Asked what the pitch was, he said, “Maybe fastball? I think fastball. I wanted to do something [with] it. Yeah, I wanted to do something [with] it.”
And he did, but there was more to come. As Jake Hjelle stepped to the plate, Cook called for the moneyball, which would have doubled the number of runs scored had Hjelle homered. Hjelle hit a deep fly ball to right for a sac fly that scored de Aza to make it 3-1 and advance Kawasaki to third. The Falcons’ skipper used his third moneyball on the next batter, Shuhei Fukuda, and while Fukuda didn’t homer, he did draw a walk, keeping the moneyball in play.
Celli, again, drew a walk, and this time, because of the moneyball rules, it advanced all the runners two bases, scoring Kawasaki and Fukuda to give the Falcons a 5-1 lead.
“Cano started with that double, which, I mean, fired us up against the fireball. A two strike double down the line, it’s huge. It completely saved the game for us,” Hjelle said. “And when he did that, I mean, it kind of just rolls downhill, hits are contagious, and people are hitting, doing their jobs, and putting balls in plays, swinging at strikes, taking balls. We got a walk on the money ball, which two bases, so that scores two. It just kind of snowballed [against] them.”
With a 5-1 lead and Lou Helmig leading off for the Cobras, Cook called for the fireball — and Helmig struck out on four pitches, his third strikeout of the game, ending the inning and the game and bringing everyone back to the ballpark at 4 p.m. local time tomorrow to see the first Baseball United champion crowned.
Asked about how the nine-game regular season gave him a chance to figure out how to best utilize the fireball and moneyball, Cook said, “It’s a learning curve early. I like saving them for late in the games, just for that simple reason, plus that saves him pitches and we can use him again tomorrow.”
Tomorrow, Cook said, “We have Kasahara, left-hander from Japan. … we got a full bullpen too, so we’re in good shape.”
NOTEBOOK – Mumbai also had success with the fireball. With Shuhei Fukuda on second and one out, Brandon Kaminer struck out Mid East’s Federico Celli looking at a curveball to end the bottom of the fourth. … Kawasaki also slapped a single the other way in the first. Best known for his love of bananas and his zany interviews, the former Toronto Blue Jay continues to perform wherever baseball takes him. World Baseball Network interviewed him at the 2025 Caribbean Series in Mexico, and this week, when WBN asked where we would cross paths with him again, he said, “Uchu! What means ‘uchu’?” ‘Uchu’ is the Japanese word for “space,” “universe,” or “cosmos.” Hopefully, they have bananas there. If they have a baseball diamond, there’s a good chance he’ll be there. Look out, Bill Lee, there’s a new spaceman in baseball.
Photo: Kazuki Yabuta of the Mid East Falcons was stellar in Game 2 of the inaugural United Series, throwing 6 1/3 innings and allowing one run on three hits. (Photo courtesy of Baseball United)
