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Mr. WBC-san fretted, and kicked his shoes at the ground, and tried to find his footing.  His fastball routinely missed Jesus Montero's mitt by one foot, by two feet, by THREE feet.  Dr. D lost count of the 2-1 and 2-0 situations that Iwakuma faced.

Iwakuma's foot plant was off, and his balance was wayyyy off, and he couldn't hit the broad side of a barn.  Dr. D watched the display painfully.  He'd just written up three articles, guaranteeing M's fans that Iwakuma-san was good to go for 2013.

But in the shout box, amigos were enjoying the Go -- a 2-hit, 0-walk result.  In the booth, Mike Blowers agreed with Dr. D, complaining (rightly) that Iwakuma had thrown 24 strikes and 19 balls.

How could Iwakuma lock the A's down with his B game?

................

WBC-san's command was off, but his stuff was on.  His shuuto was diving even more than usual (as F/X will confirm).  He was throwing it low to the A's lefty hitters, and they consistently read fastball, swinging over the top of it.  Iwakuma's shuuto is one of the game's very fine weapons, right up there with Shaun Marcum's changeup and Jered Weaver's slider.  (We won't say Felix' change or Erikkk's curve.)

His slider was biting well; I guess he must have been extending the hand farther out in front than he did at times last year.  He used more 71 MPH change curves than usual, nine of them in six innings.

................

WBC-san scuffled through three, falling back on his armside shuuto and gloveside slider ... and then, about the 4th inning, Jesus Montero suddenly slammed the stick shift lever back to FASTBALL.  Iwakuma went on to humiliate batter after batter with 91 fastballs up in the zone, right past them.

Two words.  In between.

Here's a guy who knows how to make a 91 fastball look like it's 96.  The scouts will say "his fastball plays up."  Indeed it does.

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=== Jesus Montero ===

Tell you something about Montero:  he likes to play to his pitchers' strengths.  He called for blizzards of Felix changeups on Monday, and on Tuesday he called for plenty of extra shuutos and change-curves.

Eric Wedge, and his pitching coaches, favor a more passive/brainy approach based on exploiting hitter weaknesses.

There are plusses and minuses to both approaches, but give Wedge credit that he has not Hargroved the situation.  He's been genuinely tolerant of the differences in philosophy.  Montero is out there joyfully (and naively) calling for pitches he likes, not getting wrapped around the axle in the batters' plans.  This has the effect of imposing the pitcher's will.

It's not clear what the CERA returns will be.  But early on, Montero's starting pitchers have 15 strikeouts and 1 walk allowed.

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=== Capps ===

In spring training, he said he'd fallen in love with his slider.  I thought he was joking.  

Bleh.  His whole motion is re-tooled to come around the corner with the slider.  He's re-invented himself as Jeff Nelson, and now he's 92-95 rather than 96-100.

I don't say he's done as a power guy.  Long way to go yet in his career.  This particular transition isn't one I'm enjoying.

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=== Perez ===

Did you see the NFL Street Styling on the last pitch of the game?

Watch the beanballs, guys.  Seriously.  That's a lot of swagger after two blinkin' games.  But if the Mariners already think they own baseball, it's all right with me....  there are interesting implications to that development ... 

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=== Postgame ===

Blowers, postmortem:  "I think Iwakuma will be solid all year."  Translation:  Iwakuma is legit.

Krueger:  "He was one of the best pitchers in the AL in the second half last year.  People don't understand his arsenal.  He can put people away, and he's got a feel for pitching."  Translation:  Iwakuma is impact.

Dr. D:  He ain't a major star, but he's like a top-20 starter in the AL, a 14-game winner, and there are a whale of a lot of guys who aren't.  

He has completed his MLB transition; the adjustments are firmly in the rear view mirror now.  As long as he's healthy -- hopefully that's a year or two -- he's a very serviceable #2, #3 starter on a good team.  

Man.  $6M per year, is it?  Take that over Vargas, with gusto.

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