By Jim Allen, KYODO NEWS - May 31, 2017 - 16:35 | Sports, All

The Hiroshima Carp story this spring could easily have been about the pitchers who aren't there, but the hurlers on the front line haven't given that story line a chance.

Despite the retirement of Hiroki Kuroda and the sidelining of Sawamura Award winner Kris Johnson due to illness and closer Shota Nakazaki due to injury, Hiroshima's pitching staff has still been getting the job done. They might not be awe-inspiring, but they have been consistent.

While the Carp's 3.56 team ERA entering interleague play on Tuesday was 0.13 runs above the Central League average and their two shutouts are tied for fewest in the CL, Hiroshima leads all of Nippon Professional Baseball with 30 quality starts.

Part of the answer has been Allen Kuri, the team's No. 2 draft choice in 2013. Having been forced into the bullpen due to ineffectiveness, Kuri made some adjustments to his mechanics and entered interleague tied for the team lead in starts and second in innings pitched.

"I've adopted a pitching form that is more like that used by foreign pitchers, and as a result, I have more upper body stability," Kuri told Kyodo News on Sunday. "My location has improved. I started the change with my windup last year, because no matter what I did, my upper body moved too much and my control was poor."

"So thinking how I might change my windup, I looked at various pitchers, and I kind of settled on the way the foreigners throw. Johnson was around, so was Jay (Jackson), and (Bradin) Hagens and (Ryan) Brasier, so I could ask them different things. I got a lot of advice from them."

The principle effort has been in how he lifts his front leg in his motion.

"(They tell me) things like how it feels when you pick up your front leg, how it should look when you throw," Kuri said.

"To a certain extent I've mastered it. But I have to be able to repeat it even more consistently. I have to keep at it until it's automatic."

While his contribution may be the biggest difference, it has been a team effort, pitching coach Tatsumi Une pointed out.

"He (Kuri) has established more control. He's less flustered," Une said. "Before when he was under pressure, he'd rely on working outside, but now he's going inside, too."

Just ahead of Kuri in innings pitched is second-year right-hander Akitake Okada, who was a favorite to eat up a third of the 150-plus innings that Kuroda's absence left the CL champs.

"They are different types of pitchers," Une said. "The first one (Kuri) is not going for strikeouts but looking to throw balls that drop. Okada is a power pitcher. And he's a finished product."

"Whoever it is, when it's his turn to pitch, he is executing. That's the good thing. But I haven't done anything. Each pitcher is just learning and applying himself."

Despite missing some of their big guns, Une said his staff has an advantage over last year's.

"We have more depth than last year," he said. And now that Nakazaki is back, it is even more so."

The biggest beneficiary of that depth might be Jackson, who tied for the team lead with 67 innings last season, most of them in high-leverage situations.

"This year, I feel like we're all interchangeable parts," he said. "If it's not me, it's someone else. We've got confidence and good guys here, and we also have more guys on the farm. They come up, they make their imprint, and when they go back down, they don't hang their heads. It's a really good feeling to have those guys."

Because of the confidence level, Une said the team schedules off days for relievers who've worked on consecutive days.

Last but not least is the knowledge that the Carp pitchers have Nippon Professional Baseball's most prolific offense scoring behind them and average well over five runs per game.

"I feel too that the pitchers are not under that much pressure because our offense gives them some margin for error," Une said.

==Kyodo