Yoshinobu Yamamoto returning to WBC as Japan’s ace

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — The best he can recall, Yoshinobu Yamamoto was in a classroom when he made his first World Baseball Classic memory.

Yamamoto was a fifth grader at Inbe Elementary School in the Japanese countryside town of Bizen. One afternoon in March, his teacher turned on the television for the tournament final, in which defending champion Japan played archnemesis South Korea.

“I have recollections of it being in the classroom, but I’m a little uncertain,” Yamamoto said.

What he is certain of is how the game was decided: With Ichiro Suzuki stroking a two-run single into center field in the top of the 10th inning.

In the years that followed, the short boy in that fifth-grade class moved from second base to the mound. He won a WBC in 2023 when he was part of a Japanese rotation that was led by Shohei Ohtani and Yu Darvish.

This time, the now-27-year-old Yamamoto will return to the tournament as Samurai Japan’s undisputed ace.

“I want to prepare as well as I can for the games in which I will pitch,” Yamamoto said in Japanese. “I want to be able to give everything I can give.”

Out of respect to the fans of the major league teams that employ them, Japanese players have generally refrained from comparing the WBC and World Series. Yamamoto has said he views them as “different things.”

But the WBC is a huge deal in Japan, so much so that when Dodgers manager Dave Roberts called on Yamamoto to pitch in relief in Game 7 of the World Series, a group of Japanese reporters near me became enraged.

Yamamoto had started for the Dodgers the day before. The way my Japanese colleagues saw it, the WBC was only four months away and Roberts was risking Yamamoto’s health over a relatively trivial competition.

As Samurai Japan’s No. 1 pitcher, Yamamoto is expected to pitch next on March 6 in Japan’s WBC opener against Taiwan. The game will be staged in Tokyo.

“I’m really looking forward to it,” Yamamoto said. “I’ve played in Taiwan before, and I know how much Taiwanese fans like baseball. In that sense, I think it will be a game with a very festive atmosphere. I’ll prepare so that I can give my best.”

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Yamamoto pitched two games in relief in Taiwan in 2019 when the country hosted group-stage games of the Premier 12 tournament.

The World Series hero’s preparations for the WBC included two starts for the Dodgers in the Cactus League, the second of which was on Friday against the Giants at Scottsdale Stadium.

Yamamoto pitched three innings and gave up two runs, the first on a leadoff homer by Willy Adames and the other on a run-scoring double by Heliot Ramos with no outs in the second. He wasn’t perfect, or even close to it, but he was pleased with how the game unfolded for him.

“Physically, I’m in a really good place,” he said. “In the first inning, my control wasn’t very good. But starting in the middle of the second inning, I remembered some things, and I was able to throw to good places.”

Yamamoto shouldered a heavy load in the Dodgers’ World Series run last year, but he said he never considered not playing in the WBC. Physically, he said he didn’t feel particularly worn down after the preseason.

“I had some psychological fatigue I’d never felt before, but I was able to refresh my mind,” he said of his winter.

He was scheduled to depart after the game for Japan. Plans were for him to meet up with Samurai Japan in Osaka.

Understandably protective of their best pitcher, the Dodgers have spoken to Yamamoto about what they feel comfortable with him doing at the WBC.

“We’ve had a lot of discussions in which a lot of things were decided,” he said with a smile.

How much could he pitch against Taiwan?

“It’s a secret,” he said.

Tournament rules limit pitchers to 65 pitches in group-stage games, 80 in the quarterfinals and 95 in the championship round. Any pitcher who throws more than 50 pitches in a game will not be allowed to pitch over the next four days.

“You would hope that we can get him up to four and 60 (in his first WBC start) and then five and 75, so I think that if we still build the progression that would be great,” Roberts said.

Yamamoto didn’t sound as if he was thinking ahead to the regular season. He was locked in on the WBC.

“I just want to be able to play as hard as I can while in my best form,” he said.

Because somewhere on the island country, the next Yamamoto could be watching.

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