Tim Kün
Tokyo – Hooray, a major league player, is gigantic and indomitable for the first time travel to Japan. He is close to his home country, and his presence this week felt as much like a royal visit as a man who comes to town to play baseball.
The sold-out crowd at Tokyo Dome – some of which paid thousands of dollars for tickets to the secondary market – have found even more reasons to evaluate the light of baseball motion sensors.
Otani’s fifth home run was a towering shot that appeared to have disappeared on the dirty, gray roof of the dome, and managed to please the crowd twice as he barely cleared the wall in the middle right, and when the umpire review confirmed his status as Otani’s first homer in 2025.
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In a two-game sweep of the Dodgers Cubs in the Tokyo Series, capped by a 6-3 victory on Wednesday night, Otani reached base five times, earning three runs and dominated the conversation on and off the field. Ultimately, baseball turns attention to the potential for a record-breaking Dodgers season – 162-0 is still playing – but for at least another night, it was all a big name.
“Every time he appears in a big situation, he is almost expected to go through,” said Tommy Edman, the Dodgers’ second baseman who hit the first Homer of the 2025 season in three innings. “We’re all trying to win the game. He’s playing a completely different game.”
Dodgers rookie starter Loki Sasaki was hoping he would face heavy work. At the age of 23, he made his regular season debut in Tokyo, and removed several months from playing professional baseball every month.
Before the game, Dodgers manager Dave Roberts downplayed both the importance and expectations of Sasaki’s first start. His first four warm-up pitches were impossible as they headed towards the backstop. He appeared visibly nervous on the mound and he seemed ready to pitch at any time, so he was warned to wait for eye contact from the box of two of the first five batters.
Sasaki’s talent is fascinating. His first four pitches reached 100 mph and he came to the top at 101. No matter what the question is, he has one answer. He has a division that moves its own free will, which has already been described as one of the best pitches in baseball.
No one can beat him, but as his first outing showed, they may not need to.
He allowed one hit in three innings, a weak infield single to John Berty, but walked five more than a strike and threw more balls. He allowed two easy stolen bases when he ran on one of three stretches in a row, but returned to strike Michael Bush and Matt Shaw, finishing three stints on one run.
“I think there was a nerve, and of course it is,” Roberts said. “The speed was good, but I found it difficult to hold back the emotions, the adrenaline… the highs are going to be high, and when he’s not commanding it, it’s a bit tricky. He wants to say he wants to stay in the game.
Sasaki’s movements look like an elaborate stretching routine. His leg kicks go anywhere quickly, like his split. First out, then up, then behind, kicking the hamstring before the left heel fires like a whip towards the plate.
The Tokyo crowd was filled with Velocio Siondo, Ouedo and Aadedo, and began to applaud quickly and miserably, climbing up to Sasaki’s defense, which sounded like tension as hopeful, tense, every time Sasaki broke through 98 after running third.
Otani – Always Otani – got two more at-bats after a home run. Seventh, Cubs manager Craig Counsel sparked the second biggest crowd response. It was easy to lose perspective in Otani’s enthusiasm in Tokyo this week. None of the 42,365 people in the park were interested in developing strategies to win the game.
