I pitched one inning which I had never pitched before

Nikkan Sports reported real-time breaking news when Yoshinobu Yamamoto, who took the mound as the starting pitcher of the Dodgers in Game 2 of the Seoul Series between the Los Angeles Dodgers and the San Diego Padres at Gocheok Sky Dome in Seoul on the 21st, threw only one inning and left the mound.

On the day, Yamamoto displayed his worst pitching performance. He allowed five runs in one inning with four hits and two walks. According to MLB.COM, Yamamoto is the first Dodgers pitcher to allow more than five runs in less than one inning in a Major League debut since 1901.

Yamamoto was the ace pitcher of the Japanese pro baseball. For the third year in a row, he won four gold medals and won the Sawamura Prize, which is given to the best pitcher in the Japanese pro baseball, for three consecutive years. He threw a variety of pitches, including curves, splitters, and cutters, freely on a heavy fastball in the mid-to-late 150 kilometers. The Dodgers also recognized Yamamoto and called him a "masher" as a 12-year, 325 million dollar pitcher.

When he allowed no runs in two innings in his first exhibition game, the Dodgers seemed to make an excellent choice. However, in the two exhibition games since then, the Dodgers allowed nine runs in 7.2 innings with an ERA of 10.57.

At a press conference held a day before his appearance on the 20th, Yamamoto said, "I was sluggish in the exhibition game, but I think it's okay because it's an exhibition game. I'm sure I'm ready for the opening game." However, in the end, he clearly realized the high wall of the Major League through his debut game.

So why did Yamamoto struggle in the opening game.

Yamamoto threw a total of 43 pitches on the day. Among them, he had 14 fastballs, 11 cutters, 10 curves, and eight splitters.

Fastball averaged 95.4 miles, with a maximum of 96.6 miles and a minimum of 94.3 miles. This is not much different from last year's Orix record. The same was true of other pitches.

Overall, he had no problem with his ball control. What is left is his ball control. Dodgers manager Dave Roberts and Yamamoto both agreed on the issue after the game on Monday.

"I lacked commands. It wasn't about ball power," Roberts said of Yamamoto's sluggish performance after the game. For pitchers, commands are often used as a concept similar to controls. However, in the case of controls, it means "the ability to throw strikes," while commands mean "the ability to poke all your pitches where you want them." Commands often include things like "strike in the corner of the zone" and "strike-like balls."

Of the 43 pitches Yamamoto threw, only 23 were strikes. As the strike-to-ball ratio of 23 to 20, overall control was not good. However, Roberts called the 23 strikes a command rather than a control because they were of poor quality.

If you look at Yamamoto's performance against right-handed and left-handed hitters, you can see that strikes are generally concentrated in the middle. This may be well-received in the control category, but it is difficult to get a good evaluation in the command category. At the same time, it seems that the strike group was scattered out of the strike zone in all directions. This can be seen by comparing the heat map with Glasnow, who was the starting pitcher on the 20th.

BY: 스포츠토토