Toronto Blue Jays starter Yusei Kikuchi is not a doctor, but he thinks he knows what caused the cramps that knocked him out after five innings of work Tuesday against the New York Yankees.
According to The Athletic‘s Kaitlyn McGrath, Kikuchi expects to be fine for his next start. He blamed the cramps on the fact he only got 11 hours of sleep Monday night.
That’s right, only 11 hours of sleep. That might sound like a lot of sleep for most people. Yet Kikuchi went on to reveal he usually gets 13 or 14 hours of sleep (in case you’re wondering, Kikuchi is not a teenager. He’s 32).
To show her incredulity, because most people would find this revelation unbelievable, McGrath inserted a few exclamation points in her X (formerly Twitter) post to make everything clear.
#BlueJays starter Yusei Kikuchi thinks he’ll be fine for his next start after he left the game with cramps. The biggest revelation was that he said it may have been caused by only getting 11 (!) hours of sleep last night instead of his usual 13 or 14 hours (!!)
— Kaitlyn McGrath (@kaitlyncmcgrath) September 20, 2023
McGrath dug a little deeper and found that Kikuchi is usually in bed by 11 p.m. (he must hate extra-inning games) and sleeps until 1 p.m. the next day.
Yusei said he goes to bed around 11 p.m. usually and wakes up at 1 p.m. Anyway, all this means I’ll have to have a full 3000-word feature on Kikuchi’s sleep schedule at some point
— Kaitlyn McGrath (@kaitlyncmcgrath) September 20, 2023
Of course, because we are talking about the Blue Jays, and Kikuchi hails from Japan, and he had cramps, his revelation quickly brought to mind another Japanese Blue Jays player talking about cramps. Infielder Munenori Kawasaki’s 2014 interview about bananas, monkeys, and cramps will live forever in baseball lore.
Munenori Kawasaki once gave this legendary advice on how to avoid cramps. 👀😂pic.twitter.com/GTdoC5KB9T
— Chase Denton (@chasedenton_) October 2, 2019
By the way, Kikuchi ran his record to 10-6 in the 7-1 victory over the Yankees.
The baseball world postponed their own sleep Tuesday night to weigh in on Kikuchi’s unusual sleep schedule.
He’s like a baseball vampire
— Diego (@DiegosaurusRex) September 20, 2023
Have some kids.
— Curtis (@4Wedgewood) September 20, 2023
Does he only live to play baseball? Almost half his life is spent sleeping?
— Biblical Losses (@anthonycdemaria) September 20, 2023
What does he do for day games?
— Josh Kopelman (@LatvianMissile) September 20, 2023
I legitimately haven’t totalled 14 hours of combined sleep over the past few days.
— Ryan Gorman (@GormoExJourno) September 20, 2023
It’s hard to see other people live out your dreams
— William Dammann (@WillDammann) September 20, 2023
I’m just asking because this is a remarkable statement that’s now making the rounds on social media: is there any chance that something got lost in translation? Because those are “I have mono” type sleep hours.
— Emily Kathryn (@emmykn) September 20, 2023
[Kaitlyn McGrath, The Athletic]
