The starters of the historic 2024 U.S. Major League Baseball (MLB) opening game and Seoul Series, where the Los Angeles Dodgers and San Diego Padres face off, have been confirmed.
The official U.S. Major League website MLB.com said on the 12th (Korea Standard Time) that Tyler Glasnow of the Los Angeles Dodgers and Darvish Yu of the San Diego Padres will play as the starting players for the 2024 Major League opener at Gocheok Sky Dome in Seoul on the 20th. In the second game at the same place on the 21st, Japanese pitcher Yoshinobu Yamamoto of the Los Angeles Dodgers and Joe Musgrove of the San Diego Padres will each take charge of starting.
The first major league opening game in Korea is just around the corner. The Los Angeles Dodgers and San Diego will play exhibition games in Arizona, the U.S., until the 14th, then board a plane bound for Korea and enter Korea on the 15th. After a break on the 16th, they will play warm-up games with the Korean baseball team “Team Korea”, the LG Twins, and the Kiwoom Heroes, respectively, on the 17th and 18th, which are led by young players. After taking a break on the 19th, they will play in the opening two consecutive games on the 20th and the 21st.
Among them, Yamamoto is drawing the most attention as he will make his Major League debut. Yamamoto is one of Japan’s best starters. In December last year, the Los Angeles Dodgers signed a massive contract with Yamamoto for a 12-year contract worth a total of 325 million dollars. The Dodgers, which invested 700 million dollars in Shohei Ohtani prior to the acquisition of Yamamoto, invested a whopping 1.025 billion dollars in acquiring two Japanese pitchers.(안전놀이터)
Yamamoto has become the star of a new history of the highest amount and longest contract ever for a pitcher in the Major League. The previous best contract for a pitcher was a nine-year, 324 million U.S. dollars that Gerrit Cole signed with the New York Yankees in 2020. Also, the longest contract was 10 years that Wayne Garland signed with the Cleveland Indians (currently the Cleveland Guardians) in 1977, which Yamamoto broke.
However, he showed sluggish performance in recent exhibition games. Yamamoto showed good performance with two innings of one hit and no run in the first exhibition game against the Texas Rangers on the 29th of last month, but he left a disappointing performance in his second appearance. He started in an away exhibition game against the Chicago White Sox in the 2024 Major League Cactus League on the 7th, and was shaken by three innings of six hits, three walks, four strikeouts, and five runs. Yamamoto’s performance in the exhibition game came to 0.350 for seven hits, seven strikeouts, and five runs (five earned) in five innings, and 2.00 for WHIP (on-base percentage per inning). The ERA was 9.00. In his second appearance, the maximum speed was 96 miles (about 154.5 kilometers).
Coincidentally, local media in the U.S. have recently attracted more attention as they pointed out Yamamoto’s tipping (which distinguishes pitch types based on pitching habits or movements) and so-called Kuse in Japanese. Full Count, a Japanese baseball media outlet, reported that Yamamoto was in trouble, as his ball control was disturbed. Yamamoto totaled 58 pitches, with 25 of them unstable in ball control.
According to reports, Yamamoto said after the game, “It was not a good pitch, such as continuing to throw balls or allowing walks. Although the results were not good, I think it was good in terms of sensitivity because I was able to try various things ahead of the opening game.” Yamamoto then confessed, “There were many times when the timing was not right during the set position.” The full count described this part as ‘Yamamoto’s task’. Yamamoto also judged that there was a problem with the pitching process. With the demonstration game showing virtually polar opposites, attention is focusing on how they will perform in the actual opening game.
Source: 토토사이트