The Dodgers Just Got Shut Out By a Japanese Team

The Dodgers beat the Yamiuri Giants 5-1 to open their exhibition series in Japan, with one of the more iconic moments in recent Japanese MLB play in Shohei Otani going deep to right field. There's a few other home runs and a couple other notable moments, but overall, I think this game went about how most people expected it to, considering the immense depth of the Dodgers, with no disrespect to the still exceptionally impressive Giants, but this predictability would not carry over to their second match versus the Hanshin Tigers. After having shot off the Cubs the night before, the Tigers got off to a hot start, with their ace Hiroto Saki beginning the night with a K of Otani on a devastating splitter. He would then follow this up with the same versus Tommy Edmund on another diving off-speed pitch, before getting future Hall of Famer Freddie Freeman to ground out weakly to the right side. Now, a quick note before we proceed. Yes, Blake Snell matched his performance early on, and the Dodgers overall would go on to strike out 14 batters over the course of this game, while only giving up one 3-run homer. But since this video is about the Dodgers getting shot out by the Tigers, I'm going to largely ignore LA's part in this game on the pitching side of things. In the second inning, Teoscar Hernandez would start things off with a ground ball back to the mound, easily being handled, before Max Muncy was punched out on a 93 mile-per-hour heater. That's the thing I've noticed with Japanese baseball. Most of the time, they're not going to blow you away with raw velocities like you'll see in the major leagues, but what they will do is consistently out-pitch you. Just look at the location of that offering, with the same being true of the next one, another K on another splitter, in basically the same spot after Will Smith had walked. In the third, he got three fairly routine outs, with the only notable one being a shallow pop fly off the bat of Otani. He was right back to punching guys out in the fourth inning, getting Freddie Freeman on a high-looping curveball that probably wasn't exactly where he wanted it, but still ended up being effective, before getting Teoscar Hernandez swinging as well on yet another devastating splitter. Now, at this point, keep in mind, they had a no-hitter going, an incredibly impressive feat considering the Dodgers were actually running out a vast majority of starters to begin this game. But Max Muncy would put an end to any real narrative surrounding this when he let off the next frame with a bloop single into right field. The only problem is that Will Smith immediately followed this up by lining a one hopper that was picked very nicely by the second baseman, who would turn it into two without issue, erasing LA's leadoff baserunner before Michael Conforto would strike out on yet another perfectly placed pitch. This would be the final batter that Saki, apologies if I'm not pronouncing that or any of the other names correctly, would face, with his final line being five innings, one hit, one walk, and seven strikeouts. Javier Guerra, a former MLB pitcher, would come in for the sixth, and give up a couple baserunners before getting Freeman to once again ground out to the right side. Six innings now, with zero runs for LA, and this wouldn't change in the seventh when Hidetaka Okudome retired the side in order, punctuating his night with a swinging strikeout on a nasty slider. Things were getting real now for a Dodgers team who was on the edge of being shut out, with many of their major starters having now been pulled. So you just know they were trying to lock in and at least scrape out one run, and Austin Barnes would do his part to lead off the eighth inning, lining the first pitch he saw to left field, off the first and only lefty the Dodgers would face in Taekuma Hiroshiki. But this would promptly be followed by a Chris Taylor double play, which unfortunately I couldn't find footage of, and then an Andy Pajas weak fly ball to right field, meaning the Dodgers were down to their final three outs. And they would have to get them versus dominant righty Daichi Ishii, who would retire the first two batters of the inning easily before, on an 0-2, painting the low and outside corner perfectly to James Outman, ending the night and the Dodgers' chance of scratching out even a single run. This was as impressive of a pitching performance as I've seen in some time, with nearly every offering being executed to perfection, especially versus a host of players who are used to facing the best pitching in the world, with quite a few of these guys being either perennial all-stars or potential future Hall of Famers. Now, I want to know what you guys think. If a team like the Tigers were to, in a hypothetical world, compete in the big leagues, what do you think their record would be in a full season? Let me know your thoughts in the comments below. Now, thank you so much for watching. I hope you enjoyed today's video, and if you did, please consider liking and subscribing and checking out any one of these recommended videos. Have a great rest of your day, everybody, and I'll see you in the next one.