TAMPA, Fla. -- Eight of Kei Igawa's first nine pitches missed the strike zone Thursday, and with two Atlanta Braves on base and none out, Ron Guidry made an unexpectedly early trot to the mound.
Communication has been just one hurdle for the Japanese left-hander this spring, but whatever Guidry said in his Louisiana twang, it seemed to help.
Igawa struck out the side to end the inning and, even as he battled spotty control, finished off three scoreless frames to complete his third Grapefruit League start.
"I'm not sure how Gator communicated with him," Torre joked later. "Maybe Cajun is close to Japanese."
Preparing for his first Major League season, Igawa's adjustments are continuing. The 27-year-old needed 62 pitches to get through three innings of work, and recorded just 29 strikes.
He was continuously behind in the count, throwing just one first-pitch strike to Atlanta's first nine batters -- a called strike to free-swinging former Yankee Craig Wilson, who eventually struck out.
The performance was "effectively wild," as catcher Jorge Posada put it. Igawa walked four but struck out five, and the Yankees seem encouraged by Igawa's ability to throw offspeed pitches behind in the count and his willingness to respond to tweaks.
Guidry's spoken words and assorted gestures told Igawa that he needed to reach out further and finish off his pitches -- a lesson that has been repeatedly stressed in bullpen sessions, not just under the lights at Legends Field.
But, as Torre revealed earlier on Thursday, Igawa has taken conditioning drills into his own hands on occasion.
Two days after his March 5 debut against the Detroit Tigers, an unsatisfied Igawa walked out to the adjacent Field 3 bordering Legends Field and repeatedly threw baseballs against a chain-link fence from flat ground.
"I only do that when I feel I need to keep my balance," Igawa explained through interpreter Yumi Watanbe. "It's just a way to shift my weight from one leg to the other."
Igawa said that the exercise is fairly common among Japanese pitchers, except it is usually conducted with a netted screen that could catch the thrown balls. Lacking those amenities, Igawa instead opted for the clanging of horsehide against metal.
Torre said that Guidry later instructed Igawa that the Yankees would prefer if he conducted those types of drills with the supervision of a coach.
"We're here to support him, not to change him," Torre said.
Igawa seems to be making plenty of other adjustments on his own. Though Posada said he was pleased with Igawa's slider and called his changeup "good," the catcher said that Igawa's demeanor may have seen the most improvement over the past 10 days.
"His presence around the mound is better," Posada said. "Before, he was walking around.
