"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 (7-5) works a quality start, lasting six innings and allowing three runs on six hits with a pair of walks and a half-dozen Ks, but the Los Angeles Dodgers fall short in the ninth inning in a 3-2 loss to the visiting Baltimore Orioles on Saturday. Yamamoto gives up a run in the second inning and pair of runs in the fourth, and the Dodgers plate two in the ninth, but fail to complete a comeback for a second consecutive night.
Q: How did you find the time just trying to put guys away in this one?
Yamamoto: My splitter finally started feel good in the later innings, so there were other pitch options to go with, and luckily we managed to get through things for a while with those other pitches.
Q: With kind of just working through that, how did you kind of have to make your own a adjustments in game, then?
Yamamoto: This happens often, but it’s a minor thing – the pitch’s drop is a little sluggish and it winds up being easy to get the bat on the ball on at times. And if the timing is right, you can get hurt. So I was able to avoid that, and I had some nice ones near the end of the outing, but this game was a struggle.
Q: Were you expecting Alexander to be so aggressive with the bases loaded there? Were you surprised (inaudible …) that curveball?
Yamamoto: I anticipated he’d be swinging and that’s the way I pitched him. That curve went a little too far inside, but had I thrown another one and gotten it outside a little bit more, we might have gotten a grounder to third and I would have been able to retire him. That’s how I reflected on that one.
Q: Do you feel like more of the hitters have been more aggressive swinging in general this season, but how much of an adjustment have you had to make in sort of response to that, maybe to get some swing and miss you that usually do?
Yamamoto: Opposing lineups being aggressive is a common thing, so I always expect that when I pitch.
Q: How does the run support and the little margin for error – how does that affect the way that you approach these games?
Yamamoto: So for me, I’m here approaching 10 years in this game, so when things like that happen, you have a number of things you can do in those situations. But there are times when things go your way, and times when the game isn’t easy and things don’t go your way.