Yu Darvish may be his opponent in his biggest major league baseball game to date but Shohei Ohtani’s thrilled to see him out there even if he’s going to be tough to beat.
With the announcement that Yoshinobu Yamamoto would be starting the pivotal NLDS game five for the Dodgers, it means Japanese pitchers will oppose each other in a playoff game for the first time.
Along with Ohtani who hasn’t been able to pitch this year while recovering from elbow surgery, the three comprise the best of their country currently pitching in the major leagues. Tonight they will all be on display in one huge affair.
The two starting pitchers have both missed significant time this season with assorted injuries. Darvish (Ohtani’s boyhood idol) managed just 16 starts, his fewest in a full MLB season since 2018. Darvish however has already flashed top form in this series winning game two.
“Obviously, he’s a really good pitcher and pitched well against us,” Ohtani said through interpreter Will Ireton. “I think he’s also very crafty as well, so there isn’t exactly one specific thing that really stands out.”
Ohtani is just 1-8 lifetime against Darvish in a small sample including 0-3 in the Padres 10-2 win in game 2 including a strikeout as Darvish went 7 innings allowing just 3 hits and one run.
Meanwhile a right shoulder injury held Yamamoto to just 18 starts in his first season in the majors. After getting off to a slow start he pitched well, however not so much in his first post season outing, taking a loss, allowing 5 runs in 3 innings against these Padres.
Yamamoto tipping pitches
Dodgers manager Dave Roberts thinks Yamamoto was tipping his pitches and they hope they’ve corrected that for this huge encounter after making the righthander the richest pitcher in the game, 12 years and $325 million.
“There are some things that I think we’re going to dig into, because I think at second base they had some things with his glove that were giving away some pitches,” Roberts said. “We’re going to clean that up.”
However it works out you can be sure that baseball crazy Japan will be good and ready on a Saturday morning, breakfast done and a local start time of 9:08 am to watch 3 of the greatest baseball heroes in the country’s history battle for a place in the national league championship series.
