Toronto Blue Jays fans were shocked when they learned that pitcher Yusei Kikuchi attributed his recent injury in Tuesday’s game to only getting 11 hours of sleep — a few hours less than his usual 13 or 14.
The 32-year-old’s reported sleep schedule, which would be comparable to that of a newborn baby, went viral, sparking countless memes.
TSN’s Scott Mitchell chimed in on the Kikuchi matter on Wednesday evening, providing an update on the original report.
According to Mitchell, the Iwate, Japan native was joking when he told reporters how much shuteye he gets on an average night.
“Yusei Kikuchi was joking about the sleep thing y’all,” Mitchell wrote on X (formerly Twitter), adding that “his dry and sarcastic sense of humour is off the charts is amazing.”
Mitchell also commented on how Kikuchi must be reacting to the media storm he’s caused.
“I bet he’s having a good laugh at the internet today.”
Yusei Kikuchi was joking about the sleep thing y'all.
His dry and sarcastic sense of humour is off the charts is amazing.
I bet he's having a good laugh at the internet today.— Scott Mitchell (@ScottyMitchTSN) September 20, 2023
So while the exact number of sheep-counting hours might not be 14, Kikuchi is likely still catching more Zs than the average person.
“My teammates asked me how I’m able to sleep so much,” he said through interpreter Yusuke Oshima earlier this week. “But, like, honestly, if you close your eyes, I feel like you should be able to sleep.”
And according to a Sports Illustrated article from Wednesday, on an average night, Kikuchi, who claims to be an avid coffee drinker, gets “eight, nine, 10” hours before days in which he doesn’t have a game.
As for whether he was exaggerating or not, The Athletic’s Kaitlyn McGrath, who tweeted out the original report, still thinks the Blue Jays pitcher was serious about his bedtime routine.
“I think his explanations were too detailed to not be true,” she said as a guest on Sportsnet’s Jays Talk Plus on Thursday. “We questioned him a few times in the scrum. In English, he (Kikuchi) was like ‘No, seriously, guys.'”
With all that said, we may never get the whole truth. But as Kickuchi would probably say, it’s best to just sleep on it.
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