{"id":14280,"date":"2024-10-18T07:48:24","date_gmt":"2024-10-18T07:48:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportnews.drinkfood.info\/?p=14280"},"modified":"2024-10-18T07:48:24","modified_gmt":"2024-10-18T07:48:24","slug":"japanese-stars-take-postseason-center-stage-and-the-whole-world-is-watching","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportnews.drinkfood.info\/?p=14280","title":{"rendered":"Japanese stars take postseason center stage, and the whole world is watching"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/img.mlbstatic.com\/mlb-images\/image\/upload\/t_16x9\/t_w1024\/mlb\/l1ycnnqio6lrv8sdqd9z.jpg\" alt=\"Design by Tom Forget\" \/><\/p>\n<div class=\"Styles__StoryPartContainer-sc-1mfrmm0-0 cTMViG story-part markdown\">\n<div class=\"Styles__MarkdownContainer-dxqlie-0 eJdqRG\">\n<p>Fifty-three thousand fans pushed their way through the turnstiles for the must-win contest as the Dodgers and Padres played for their postseason survival last week in NLDS Game 5. Five thousand miles away, when the day was just beginning for fans in Japan, millions more woke up and flipped on their TVs to tune in.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"Styles__StoryPartContainer-sc-1mfrmm0-0 cTMViG story-part markdown\">\n<div class=\"Styles__MarkdownContainer-dxqlie-0 eJdqRG\">\n<p>This wasn\u2019t just any rivalry game, though. This was\u00a0Yu Darvish, the only Japanese pitcher to strike out 2,000 batters in the Major Leagues, going up against the ridiculously talented, three-time Sawamura Award-winning young right-hander\u00a0Yoshinobu Yamamoto.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"Styles__StoryPartContainer-sc-1mfrmm0-0 cTMViG story-part markdown\">\n<div class=\"Styles__MarkdownContainer-dxqlie-0 eJdqRG\">\n<p>A year before, the two had been teammates for Samurai Japan in the World Baseball Classic, with\u00a0Darvish taking the role of mentor to Yamamoto. And now, for the first time in MLB postseason history,\u00a0two Japanese-born pitchers were facing each other.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"Styles__StoryPartContainer-sc-1mfrmm0-0 cTMViG story-part dynamicinclude\">\n<div class=\"Styles__MarkdownContainer-dxqlie-0 eJdqRG\">\n<div class=\"Styles__StoryPartContainer-sc-1mfrmm0-0 cTMViG story-part markdown\">\n<div class=\"Styles__MarkdownContainer-dxqlie-0 eJdqRG\">\n<p>\u201cFor Yamamoto, I don\u2019t think any of us can appreciate the pressure on a global scale,\u201d Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said after the game. \u201cHe was pitching for the country of Japan.&#8221;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"Styles__StoryPartContainer-sc-1mfrmm0-0 cTMViG story-part markdown\">\n<div class=\"Styles__MarkdownContainer-dxqlie-0 eJdqRG\">\n<p>It didn\u2019t hurt that\u00a0Shohei Ohtani\u00a0was leading off for the Dodgers, either, making this also the first time that three Japanese players were in the starting lineup in a single postseason game. (To add\u00a0<em>another<\/em>\u00a0wrinkle to the whole thing: Darvish was\u00a0Ohtani\u2019s hero growing up.)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"Styles__StoryPartContainer-sc-1mfrmm0-0 cTMViG story-part oembed\">\n<div class=\"Styles__OEmbedContainer-oapuup-0 jxLBBf social-embed twitter\">\n<div class=\"twitter-tweet twitter-tweet-rendered\"><iframe id=\"twitter-widget-0\" class=\"\" title=\"X Post\" src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/embed\/Tweet.html?dnt=false&amp;embedId=twitter-widget-0&amp;features=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%3D%3D&amp;frame=false&amp;hideCard=false&amp;hideThread=false&amp;id=1844830365187191085&amp;lang=en&amp;origin=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.mlb.com%2Fnews%2Fshohei-ohtani-and-japan-s-biggest-stars-highlight-mlb-postseason&amp;sessionId=68718b4abf260a1eaad61f4e602337796b590ee7&amp;siteScreenName=mlb&amp;theme=light&amp;widgetsVersion=2615f7e52b7e0%3A1702314776716&amp;width=550px\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\" data-tweet-id=\"1844830365187191085\"><\/iframe><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"Styles__StoryPartContainer-sc-1mfrmm0-0 cTMViG story-part ad\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"Styles__StoryPartContainer-sc-1mfrmm0-0 cTMViG story-part markdown\">\n<div class=\"Styles__MarkdownContainer-dxqlie-0 eJdqRG\">\n<p>\u201cI think this is probably the most exciting MLB postseason ever for Japanese [fans],\u201d Aogu Tanaka, a writer for the popular Japanese sports magazine Number told MLB.com in an email. \u201cEven people who weren&#8217;t interested in baseball are now paying attention.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"Styles__StoryPartContainer-sc-1mfrmm0-0 cTMViG story-part markdown\">\n<div class=\"Styles__MarkdownContainer-dxqlie-0 eJdqRG\">\n<p>\u201cI think for most Japanese people it was just really cool to see an all-Japanese matchup,\u201d Yuri Karasawa, perhaps better known by his\u00a0X\/Twitter handle\u00a0and\u00a0YouTube account, Yakyu Cosmopolitan, where he covers Japanese baseball in English. \u201cIt was the same mood for Yamamoto vs. [Shota] Imanaga in the regular season. Hard to describe it, but I would say the closest thing in American sports might be like when the Williams sisters matched up in tennis. A friendly rivalry.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"Styles__StoryPartContainer-sc-1mfrmm0-0 cTMViG story-part markdown\">\n<div class=\"Styles__MarkdownContainer-dxqlie-0 eJdqRG\">\n<p>Despite the odd time for the game in Japan \u2013 first pitch was at 9:08 a.m. on a Saturday \u2013 the contest earned nearly a 20 percent rating in Japan, with\u00a0almost 13 million people tuning in. \u201c[A]n astonishing number,\u201d Tanaka wrote.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"Styles__StoryPartContainer-sc-1mfrmm0-0 cTMViG story-part markdown\">\n<div class=\"Styles__MarkdownContainer-dxqlie-0 eJdqRG\">\n<p>The bars and izakayas may have been closed, keeping people from congregating together to watch, but still: This was top of mind for most fans in Japan.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"Styles__StoryPartContainer-sc-1mfrmm0-0 cTMViG story-part markdown\">\n<div class=\"Styles__MarkdownContainer-dxqlie-0 eJdqRG\">\n<p>\u201cEven when you&#8217;re on the train or in a cafe, you can hear conversations like \u2018Ohtani hit it\u2019 or \u2018I wonder if the Dodgers will win,\u2019 from somewhere,\u201d Tanaka, who is currently in Los Angeles to cover the NLCS if it returns to Dodger Stadium, said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"Styles__StoryPartContainer-sc-1mfrmm0-0 cTMViG story-part markdown\">\n<div class=\"Styles__MarkdownContainer-dxqlie-0 eJdqRG\">\u201cI think one of the main ways people stay in touch with what\u2019s going on is TV programs and variety shows after the games are already finished,\u201d Karasawa added. \u201cThey have sports programs all the time, including those that focus on just Ohtani every month or so. I watched one just the other day that they made directly after he reached 50\/50 and they were basically recapping his entire season and providing some commentary about his teammates and other teams to help people understand MLB better.\u201d<\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"Styles__StoryPartContainer-sc-1mfrmm0-0 cTMViG story-part markdown\">\n<div class=\"Styles__MarkdownContainer-dxqlie-0 eJdqRG\">\n<p>Ever since \u201cMashi\u201d Murakami\u00a0made his debut for the Giants in 1964, you cannot tell the story of the Major Leagues without talking about the impact made by Japanese ballplayers. Hideo Nomo and his twisting, twirling dervish of a delivery inspired Nomo-mania in the \u201890s; Ichiro Suzuki attacked the record books, slashing his way to the single-season hits record and topping 3,000 knocks in the Major Leagues.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"Styles__StoryPartContainer-sc-1mfrmm0-0 cTMViG story-part markdown\">\n<div class=\"Styles__MarkdownContainer-dxqlie-0 eJdqRG\">\n<p>This is also not the first time that Japanese players have taken center stage during the postseason: Hideki Matsui won the World Series MVP Award after hitting .615 with three home runs and eight RBIs for the Yankees in the 2009 Fall Classic. Four years later, Red Sox reliever Koji Uehara rode his unhittable split-finger to the ALCS MVP Award en route to a World Series victory, too.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"Styles__StoryPartContainer-sc-1mfrmm0-0 cTMViG story-part ad\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"Styles__StoryPartContainer-sc-1mfrmm0-0 cTMViG story-part oembed\">\n<div class=\"Styles__OEmbedContainer-oapuup-0 jxLBBf social-embed twitter\">\n<div class=\"twitter-tweet twitter-tweet-rendered\"><iframe id=\"twitter-widget-1\" class=\"\" title=\"X Post\" src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/embed\/Tweet.html?dnt=false&amp;embedId=twitter-widget-1&amp;features=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%3D%3D&amp;frame=false&amp;hideCard=false&amp;hideThread=false&amp;id=1844885212951412781&amp;lang=en&amp;origin=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.mlb.com%2Fnews%2Fshohei-ohtani-and-japan-s-biggest-stars-highlight-mlb-postseason&amp;sessionId=68718b4abf260a1eaad61f4e602337796b590ee7&amp;siteScreenName=mlb&amp;theme=light&amp;widgetsVersion=2615f7e52b7e0%3A1702314776716&amp;width=550px\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\" data-tweet-id=\"1844885212951412781\"><\/iframe><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"Styles__StoryPartContainer-sc-1mfrmm0-0 cTMViG story-part markdown\">\n<div class=\"Styles__MarkdownContainer-dxqlie-0 eJdqRG\">\n<p>What\u2019s different this year is how many stars have come over from Nippon Professional Baseball and how integral each player is to his team\u2019s chances of winning the World Series. Yamamoto is one of the best arms currently in the Dodgers rotation, while\u00a0Ohtani\u2019s 50-50 campaign is arguably the greatest single offensive season in baseball history.<\/p>\n<p>Despite missing most of the year with an injury and struggling with his command in his first appearance against the Dodgers this series, the Mets\u2019\u00a0Kodai Senga possesses ace-like stuff &#8212; including a legendary &#8220;ghost fork&#8221; &#8212; and he might be relied upon to bounce back out of the bullpen in a must-win NLCS Game 5 on Friday night.<\/p>\n<div class=\"Styles__StoryPartContainer-sc-1mfrmm0-0 cTMViG story-part markdown\">\n<div class=\"Styles__MarkdownContainer-dxqlie-0 eJdqRG\">\n<p>While Ohtani may dominate the discussion, with Karasawa noting that he \u201ctranscends baseball,\u201d and is \u201cprobably the most famous person in the country at this point\u201d &#8212; it can be hard to walk down a street in Tokyo\u00a0<em>or<\/em>\u00a0Little Tokyo in Los Angeles\u00a0without seeing Ohtani\u2019s face on a billboard &#8212; this is likely only the start of more to come.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"Styles__StoryPartContainer-sc-1mfrmm0-0 cTMViG story-part markdown\">\n<div class=\"Styles__MarkdownContainer-dxqlie-0 eJdqRG\">\n<p>Fireballing Roki Sasaki has\u00a0expressed his desire\u00a0to come to the Major Leagues for some time and interest from big league teams should only have grown after he tossed eight shutout innings against the Nippon-Ham Fighters in the NPB playoffs last week. Longtime Yomiuri Giants ace\u00a0Tomoyuki Sugano is set to come to the States this winter\u00a0as a free agent. The 35-year-old wrapped up arguably the best season in his 12-year career, going 15-3 with a 1.67 ERA and a remarkable 111\/16 K\/BB ratio.\u00a0Rintaro Sasaki opted to play college baseball at Stanford\u00a0instead of likely being picked first overall in the NPB draft, and teams are still tantalized by single-season NPB home run record-holder Munetaka Murakami\u2019s light-tower power, even with some significant concerns about his penchant to swing and miss.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"Styles__StoryPartContainer-sc-1mfrmm0-0 cTMViG story-part markdown\">\n<div class=\"Styles__MarkdownContainer-dxqlie-0 eJdqRG\">\n<p>&#8220;There&#8217;s no doubt that they are aspiring to move to MLB,&#8221; Tanaka wrote. &#8220;However, judging from their comments so far, I think that if they see such an exciting postseason, they will want to go to MLB sooner. The speed, power, excitement, cheers &#8230; everything is extraordinary. They will definitely want to play there.&#8221;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"Styles__StoryPartContainer-sc-1mfrmm0-0 cTMViG story-part markdown\">\n<div class=\"Styles__MarkdownContainer-dxqlie-0 eJdqRG\">\n<p>The baseball world is only getting bigger. We as fans are just the ones lucky enough to sit back and enjoy it all.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Fifty-three thousand fans pushed their way through the turnstiles for the must-win contest as the Dodgers and Padres played for their postseason survival last week in NLDS&#8230; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":14289,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14280","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mlb"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Japanese stars take postseason center stage, and the whole world is watching - Sport News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/sportnews.drinkfood.info\/?p=14280\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Japanese stars take postseason center stage, and the whole world is watching - Sport News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Fifty-three thousand fans pushed their way through the turnstiles for the must-win contest as the Dodgers and Padres played for their postseason survival last week in NLDS...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/sportnews.drinkfood.info\/?p=14280\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Sport News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2024-10-18T07:48:24+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/sportnews.drinkfood.info\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/2-428.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"2000\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"2500\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"MrThang\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"MrThang\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sportnews.drinkfood.info\/?p=14280\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/sportnews.drinkfood.info\/?p=14280\",\"name\":\"Japanese stars take postseason center stage, and the whole world is watching - 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