LOS ANGELES (AP) — Shohei Ohtani and Yoshinobu Yamamoto have been friends going back to their days playing in Japan’s top baseball league. Now, they’re making their Major League Baseball playoff debuts together for the Los Angeles Dodgers. They teamed to win a gold medal for Japan in last year’s World Baseball Classic.
Their next goal? Win a World Series championship together. “The experience back in Japan, Japan Series and the World Baseball Classic, other big games will definitely help,” Yamamoto said Friday through an interpreter. “And I’d like to utilize it.
” Yamamoto will start Game 1 of the National League Division Series on Saturday against Dylan Cease and the rival San Diego Padres. The Dodgers outlasted the Padres to win the NL West title for the 11th time in 12 years over the closing days of the regular season after San Diego took eight of 12 games from the Dodgers. “I’m sure there’s bigger hype and excitement playing against a division rival,” Ohtani said through an interpreter.
Japan has a major imprint on this best-of-five series that features San Diego's Yu Darvish going against his old team in Game 2 on Sunday. Darvish was Ohtani's childhood hero. “My personal hope was that Darvish would have faced against Yoshinobu,” Ohtani said.
“Obviously that’s not going to happen this time around, but I’m very honored and excited to be able to face him.” Yamamoto was originally slated to pitch Game 2, but the Dodgers flipped him and Ja.