Seal of Approval

When Lotte's ace closer Warren struck out Kaizuka for his 15th save,
he pulled his elbow back in a big guts pose while letting out a big yell. 
Just as energetic, but much more proper than flipping off the opposing
dug out as he did after saving a game against the same Lions a couple of
weeks earlier.

The "trouble" all started last season when Higashio-kantoku claimed
that Warren was messing with balls.  He claimed that the balls had
more movement on them than was physically possible without warping the
ball in some way.  And typical of Higashio-kantoku, he tried to make
it an issue to distract the opposition into not being able to perform well. 
His attempts failed.

During Warrens' last meetings with Seibu, Higashio-kantoku started his
distraction technique, I mean, allocations of ball tampering again. 
Then, after he was warned of increased checks at the umpires' discretion,
Warren went out and shut the Lions down.  An umpire did check the ball after a pitch, but didn't find anything wrong with it  Warren's only regret was that
he only struck out two of the three batters he faced.

Warren said in an interview with Shukan Baseball that all of
Higashio-kantoku's antics don't distract him in the least.  Once he
goes into a game, his concentration in completely between him and the batter. 
None of the nonsense off the field has any effect on him.

Nonetheless, Higashio-kantoku continued his off the field show by whining
about Warren's middle finger gesture on their previous meeting.  The
Pacific League Chairman and representatives from both teams all made sure
that Warren knew that such a gesture wouldn't be tolerated a second time. 
Warren, after doing it, even confessed himself that what he had done was
foolish, and unlike certain Central League managers in Nagoya, wasn't forced
to make an apology.

Warren gave up a couple of lucky hits and a wild pitch gave up a run. 
But he got Suzuki (who it is said had flipped off the Lotte dugout once the season before) to ground into a double play, just like he wanted, then
struck out Kaizuka for the save as Lotte won 3-2.  That makes it 4
in a row (with one tie) for Lotte over the Lions.  And when Warren
pulled back his elbow in a "strike out" type of motion to conclude the
game, all decided that that was a right and proper guts pose.