The Canberra Cavalry have bolstered their bullpen, but it's their misfiring bats that need help.
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Whether those bats catch fire or not, they'll still monitor the shroud of smoke surrounding Narrabundah Ballpark ahead of their four-game series against arch-rivals Sydney Blue Sox, which starts Thursday night.
The fourth-and-final Yokohama Baystars pitcher has arrived in Canberra - just in time for "Japan Night" on Friday - with reliever Shingo Hirata set to face the Blue Sox.
He joins Takamasa Kasai, Shinichi Ohnuki and Kosuke Sakaguchi, but is by far the most experienced of them all.
Hirata has played 99 Nippon Professional Baseball games across six seasons with Yokohama - more than the other three combined.
He had an earned-run average from his eight games for the Baystars this year.
While the 30-year-old will add plenty of experience to the pitching roster, it's the Cavalry's hitters who are struggling.
The Cavalry have scored just 46 runs so far this campaign - the second fewest in the ABL - despite having hit the most home runs (13).
Canberra outfielder Kyle Perkins has hit two of those and was looking to help get the runs flowing against Sydney.
The Cavalry sit on the bottom of the ABL's north-east conference with four wins, but are just two wins behind the second-placed Blue Sox.
It's a big fortnight for the men in orange, who then host conference-leaders Brisbane (six wins) next weekend.
"The bat went away a little bit, but I've been trying to find that swing again," Perkins said.
"It's the same story for a lot of our guys - just trying to find their swings and see where they fit into the line up, and trying to score more runs.
"It was a very tough series last week - we only scored four runs over the last three games and it's very hard to win ball games when you do that."
MORE CANBERRA NEWS
Smoke from the bushfires engulfing NSW will greet the Sydney players in Canberra.
It's forced several sports to cancel or change their training to minimise the impact on their players already this week.
Cavalry boss Donn McMichael was unsure what affect the smoke would have.
"I hope the smoke will clear, but we don't want to lose [playing] a series [because of it]," he said.
"It's fair to say we'll be monitoring the air quality."
Perkins was confident the games would go ahead after the Blue Sox managed to play all four games against the Bandits in Sydney last weekend despite similar problems with smoke.
His family has almost been touched by the fires, with it coming within metres of his cousin's home near Taree.
The 28-year-old wished they could do more to help.
"I think it can play a bit of havoc with respiratory stuff - you might not get as much oxygen as you want - but I don't think it will hurt us too much," Perkins said.
"It might be a little stingy on the eyes and it might change the game a little bit, but Sydney had it pretty bad last week and they went ahead and played all four games.
"Just one of things where we've got to grit our teeth and move on."
ABL ROUND 4
Thursday: Canberra Cavalry v Sydney Blue Sox at Narrabundah Ballpark, 7pm. Game two Friday 7pm, game three Saturday 7pm, game four Sunday 4pm.