LOS ANGELES — It was about 9:09 a.m. in Tokyo when Yoshinobu Yamamoto threw the first pitch of Game 5 of the NLDS at Dodger Stadium. A half-inning later Yu Darvish, struck out Shohei Ohtani to start the bottom of the first with Kyle Higashioka behind the plate. Padres reliever Yuki Matsui watched from bullpen and Dodgers manager Dave Roberts — born in Okinawa to a U.S. Marine and a Japanese woman — had his view from the top step in the home dugout.
“I was actually just thinking of it a few minutes ago,” Higashioka, whose father was a third-generation Japanese American, said as he popped onto the field on Friday for warm-ups. “There’s going to be a lot of players of Japanese descent on the field, probably as many as I’ve ever seen in a major league game.
“It’s pretty cool.”
In the first MLB postseason matchup between Japanese-born starting pitchers, Yamamoto spun five shutout innings, scattering two hits and a walk before Roberts began dipping into his bullpen. Darvish countered with 6⅔ innings of two-run ball, surrendering a solo homers to Kike Hernandez in the second and Teoscar Hernandez in the seventh in his second quality start in the NLDS.
“It’s a big deal,” Padres manager Mike Shildt said. “ … What I love about this series … is the fact that Major League Baseball has done a fantastic job of making this an international game. I grew up, it was America’s game and hot dogs and apple pie and I guess I could put a plug in for Chevrolet. But now it’s just an international game. The whole country of Japan is going to be watching and rightfully so. I think it’s fantastic that our game has those tentacles now.”
Contained in Darvish’s strong start was holding Ohtani hitless in three at-bats for a second time this series. Ohtani struck out twice and popped up against his childhood hero on Friday.
“He doesn’t rely on one plan,” Ohtani said, “so in that sense it’s for us as hitters, we have to be able to adjust and that’s what makes him good and crafty as well.”
Matsui’s only appearance of the series was striking out a batter in a scoreless inning in Game 4 at Petco Park. He’d hoped to get into Friday’s game, but said he was excited to see it unfold for what it means to his country’s standing in the sport.
“I think that means a lot to Japanese baseball,” Matsui said through interpreter Yusuke Horii. “Probably there will be a lot of Japanese players that will come in the future.”
Musgrove, Kim have surgeries
The visiting dugout was short two players as Joe Musgrove and Ha-Seong Kim both went under the knife on Friday.
Musgrove’s Tommy John surgery was performed by Dr. Keith Meister in Dallas, while Kim’s labrum repair was performed by Dr. Neal ElAttrache in Los Angeles.
Kim will be a free agent if both sides to exercise an $8 million mutual option after this season.
Musgrove will be entering the third year of his five-year, $100 million deal in 2025. He’ll likely miss the entire season, although he was certainly doing his homework on the possibility of being ready for postseason contributions next fall.
By having the surgery on Friday, perhaps Musgrove believes there’s a window to contribute at the end of the season.
“Some guys regenerate tissues faster than others,” Musgrove said on Monday at Petco Park. “I’m always going to leave room for the miracle of coming back in a crazy amount of time. But hearing the stories and reading up and doing my homework and talking with our trainers who have rehabbed tons of these, there’s a lot of importance in giving it the time on the front end that it needs. …
“Then once we get to consistent throwing programs and start getting closer to the mound work, I think that’s where we can hopefully pick up speed and gain some ground.”
Staff writer Kevin Acee contributed to this report.