This past spring Masataka Yoshida and Shohei Ohtani shared the field together and helped bring the World Baseball Classic championship back to Japan.
Now, the two will face off against one another as rivals for the first time in Major League Baseball.
Yoshida, who was out of the lineup for the third straight game Friday due to right hamstring tightness, expects to return on Saturday for the second game of this weekend’s series against Ohtani and the Los Angeles Angels. Speaking in the home dugout prior to Friday’s game, Yoshida expressed excitement about getting to share the big stage with his countryman.
“I’m really honored to play with him in the best place in the world,” Yoshida said via translator Keiichiro Wakabayashi.
Between his unprecedented big league exploits and World Baseball Classic heroics, Ohtani is a bona fide national hero in Japan and is again looking like a favorite to win American League MVP. Entering Friday he was batting .300 with three home runs and a .979 OPS at the plate while also boasting a perfect 2-0 record with a 0.47 ERA over 19 innings on the mound.
Yoshida hopes to at some point make close to that kind of impact in Boston, but so far he has faced a tough adjustment to the new level of competition.
Entering the weekend Yoshida was batting .216 with one home run, six RBI, eight runs scored and a .680 OPS through his first 10 big league games, numbers that effectively indicate a replacement-level player.
His plate discipline has been good as advertised — he’s drawn seven walks against only three strikeouts — but Yoshida has had difficulty driving the ball. So far 70.6% of his balls in play have been grounders, compared to just 8.8% line drives and 14.7% fly balls.
Some growing pains are to be expected, and Yoshida said he’s spent a lot of time studying video and working with his teammates and coaches to help make the big league transition.
“I thought I needed to make adjustments to big league baseball, and I’m still trying to find the best way to face them,” Yoshida said.
He won’t need any special scouting report to understand what he’s facing on Monday, however, when Ohtani is expected to take the hill for the Angels.
Yoshida isn’t the only one excited to see Ohtani up close. Red Sox manager Alex Cora offered high praise for the Angels star ahead of the weekend’s four-game series.
“This guy, with all due respect to all the athletes in the world, he has to be like the best athlete. What he’s doing, what he did, is amazing,” Cora said. “I’m still in awe because I know how much these guys have to prepare on the hitting side of it and the pitching side, and he has to do it all.
“I don’t even know his schedule as far as bullpens and studying videos and scouting reports and all that,” Cora continued. “Maybe he doesn’t even do that, maybe he just goes out and dominates, but it’s impressive.”
Had things played out differently, perhaps Cora may have had a chance to see Ohtani’s behind-the-scenes routine up close. Cora said that when he was first hired to manage the Red Sox in late 2017 the club was already working on recruiting Ohtani from Japan, and early in his tenure he was asked by Gus Quattlebaum, the Red Sox Vice President of Scouting Development and Integration, to write Ohtani a letter.
“I used my experience in Miami, being from another country and all this stuff, two days later they’re like no, you guys are out,” Cora said with a laugh, adding that as a first-time big league manager the prospect of working with a two-way player like Ohtani was intimidating. “For two weeks I was like, ‘wow, how are we going to do this?’ This is my first big league experience as a manager and I have to hopefully do it.”
Perhaps Cora will get another chance down the road. Ohtani is in the last year of his contract and is set to hit free agency this coming offseason.
Coming off a strong rehab start Tuesday night in Worcester, second-year right-hander Brayan Bello will “most likely” make his big league debut on Monday against Ohtani, Cora said.
Chris Sale will get an extra day of rest and start Tuesday’s series opener against the Minnesota Twins.
“Whenever we can get Chris and Corey (Kluber) a day, especially now in this stretch, is always important,” Cora said.
Zack Kelly (right elbow inflammation) underwent an MRI on Friday but did not have the results back prior to Friday night’s game. Cora said left-hander Joely Rodriguez (oblique strain) and shortstop Trevor Story (elbow rehab) have both begun playing catch, but there still isn’t any timetable for their return or for outfielder Adam Duvall (broken wrist).