"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 – Shohei Ohtani allows a season-high four earned runs in the fifth inning and comes out of the game with a bleeding blister, but the Los Angeles Dodgers rally for a 5-4 victory on Wednesday at home to complete a three-game sweep of the Tampa Bay Rays. Ohtani (7-2) works around seven hits, a walk and a hit batter with the help of five Ks and strong defense over six innings as his ERA goes to 1.47.
Q: Shohei, how did you feel out there, and how did it feel in the fifth inning?
Ohtani: Well, I felt fairly good as far as my stuff, but I think it was just that one inning. I think the leadoff walk wasn’t good.
Q: How did the knee feel and they showed some blood on your pants, the blister opening up again, how did that affect you today?
Ohtani: Well, when I was pitching, it wasn’t anything in particular that factored in. And there’s no absolute that you’re always going to be totally healthy and feeling 100 percent out there when you pitch – these things happen during a long season. But with that, it was huge for us to come away with the victory.
Q: Is that what separates pitchers, like what you did today? You’re not going to feel the best every time, but you have to find a way. How much did you compete through this today?
Ohtani: Well, overall, I felt like I competed well, and I came into the game well-prepared. It was really the one bad inning, so it of course had some good and some bad, but it was a good game.
Q: Was there any consideration with the knee to not start today? And did you have to do anything differently from last week after the mechanics kind of led to it?
Ohtani: As far as my mechanics, I came in after having made a fix, and that was firstly a positive. And tomorrow is an off day, so as deep into the game as I could pitch, I wasn’t going to worry about the number of innings I went. I just wanted to go as far as I could. I would say it was a game in which I did the minimum, and there are some things to work on.
Q: Shohei, how do you feel, as we get into mid-June, about managing the overall workload pitching-wise?
Ohtani: No, there’s nothing because basically the time off between starts is scheduled and the team takes care of that actual schedule. If there’s going to be an increase or a decrease, that’s up to the team to decide. I think the biggest thing for us is to do what we have to for everyone to be healthy and able to perform when the postseason comes around, and I leave that kind of thing up to the team to manage.