"Straight Talk" is a regular feature in which The Sporting Tribune's John E. Gibson offers a full translation of media availability with Dodgers Japanese stars Shohei Ohtani, Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Roki Sasaki. He will also help translate when Lakers star Rui Hachimura and L.A. Galaxy captain Maya Yoshida are asked questions in Japanese.
The job of interpreters in the heat of the moment is difficult without the ability to write down questions and answers and re-hear responses for proper context. That's where John comes in to help. John currently works as a Japanese-English interpreter and covered pro baseball in Japan for about 20 years. His experience as a sports reporter includes stints at The Orange County Register, The Inland Valley Daily Bulletin, The Redlands Daily Facts, The Yomiuri Shimbun’s English newspaper in Tokyo and The Epoch Times.
LOS ANGELES – Yoshinobu Yamamoto (5-4) throws 5.1 scoreless innings, working around four hits and a pair of walks with the help of 10 strikeouts as the Los Angeles Dodgers cruise past the visiting Philadelphia Phillies 9-1 on Sunday afternoon. Yamamoto is lifted after 104 pitches, but the bats back him with a rare show of support as he moves over .500.
Q: Yoshi, when you look at this outing, what do you think either led to the longer at-bats, the pitch counts getting up, but of course you still being efficient. But how did you find just them building the pitch count early in this one?
Yamamoto: I got ahead of them, and when I wanted to put them away, there were too many pitches were too far out of the zone – balls that were never strikes. I didn’t have total control of my pitches today, but I had some velocity and I think that helped me come away with the result.
Q: That good course and that good energy you mentioned, is that what you believed think led to just the swing and miss that you had today?
Yamamoto: Well, yes. I felt good physically during training this week and was able to throw well. I went to the mound today and was able to pitch with confidence.
Q: Do you feel like the two challenges from Dalton (Rushing) in the first inning kind of helped you and changed some of the momentum?
Yamamoto: Yeah, I felt like those pitches were well-located, so for him to challenge was great for me.
Q: Yoshinobu, before the game today, Dave Roberts said that you couldn’t write up a better player or just human than you. So what does hearing something like that mean to you?
Yamamoto: I’m extremely glad to hear that. As a player, I think it’s a very important thing. I’m happy.
Q: When he’s pitched, he hasn’t always gotten great run support. Today was different, though. How much does that put his mind at ease and allow him to just relax and do his thing on the mound?
Yamamoto: I just went out there focused on protecting the lead each inning and pitched.
Q: How close are you to … like where you would like to get this point in the season – have you found something in these past three starts, and how close are you to where you want to be?
Yamamoto: My pitching is gradually getting better. Today, I came off the mound in the sixth inning, but I want to reflect on the outing today and use that when I come out next time and pitch better.