Lessons learned: Sawamura vows he'll adjust

Adjustments. They are everywhere that Red Sox righty reliever Hirokazu Sawamura looks these days.

There is the new culture after living a lifetime in Japan. There is the language barrier and having some of the most basic baseball messages delivered through an interpreter at this stage.

There is the baseball itself, which is different -- generally viewed to be slicker -- than the ones used in Japan.

And there are the opponents. With all due respect to the hitters Sawamura faced over a decade in Japan, he is facing the highest level in the world right now.

So, yes, the 32-year-old Sawamura has struggled to find the strike zone in his first two Grapefruit League outings with the Red Sox, including another three-walk performance in his team's 3-2 loss to the Rays on Monday.

Perhaps that should be expected at this stage. The Red Sox also expect he will make these adjustments in fairly short order and become a key cog in their bullpen.

Red Sox manager Alex Cora has seen this before. In 2007, as a player in Boston, he watched as Daisuke Matsuzaka and Hideki Okajima adjusted to life and baseball in the United States.

Those two pitchers helped the Red Sox win the World Series. So, yes, Cora knows not to overreact to a pair of Spring Training outings, even as Sawamura's every pitch is tracked by the many Japanese news outlets that are covering him.

"Oh yeah, we knew it, we knew it," said Cora. "I lived it in 2007 with Dice-K and Oki, and they did a good job for us. It's not that easy. You know, it's the clubhouse and housing and the food. All that stuff comes into play, and we're doing everything possible to make him feel comfortable.

"You guys talk to him, you can tell that he's into it, he's in a good spot and it is a matter for him to just keep working hard and start getting his command in the strike zone."

There were flashes of brilliance from Sawamura on Monday in Port Charlotte, Fla. After he loaded the bases (double, walk, walk) with nobody out, Sawamura came back to strike out 2020 postseason hero Randy Arozarena and veteran Brandon Lowe. Sawamura was just a pitch from escaping the inning unscathed, but he walked Yandy Díaz on a 3-2 offering that didn't miss the strike zone by much. Sawamura displayed a fastball that hit 96 mph and a slider with good depth.

"In the first outing last Friday, I gave up three walks, and today I believe that I gave up three walks as well," Sawamura said. "But I think in terms of command, I think the command was a little bit better today. But these are tiny adjustments, tiny details that I need to make adjustments to. I cannot stick to the way I was throwing in in Japan. I have to make changes and I have to work on something different here."

At the moment, Sawamura seems caught in between knowing he can't get away with making pitches in the center of the plate while also knowing he needs to avoid being too fine. He needs to trust his stuff. After all, that stuff got him to MLB.

"In terms of the strike zone, if I leave the pitches just sort of in the middle, I think the batters here have the ability to just hit one to the outfield, and that's something that I've got to get used to," Sawamura said. "And the environment and in these differences, these could be just excuses for me.

"[But] I have to get used to it. These are factors that I have to get used to. So I got some takeaways from today. I learned some lessons. So these lessons I learned will definitely help me in the next outing. And I think the pitches that I was able to throw for strikes, and the pitches that I threw for balls, they're really obvious."

Cora actually enjoyed watching Sawamura trying to fight his way out of trouble. In a sense, that is the beauty of Spring Training. Once the regular season starts, such moments will make Cora's stomach churn.

"One thing that I liked was, you know, he had to compete right away," Cora said. "He was right in that tough situation and he got the two strikeouts and the last pitch was a close one, so now he moves on to the next one."

With 17 days left until Opening Day, Sawamura looks forward to gaining the comfort he needs to succeed at the highest level of his sport.

"I think I just have to pitch more -- whether it's in sim game or in an actual game," Sawamura said. "I just have to. I have to make adjustments and improve myself."

In his first two appearances, Sawamura has recorded just four outs while walking six. But he found the silver lining in that.

"I think I did better than the last time, and I think I'm at the bottom right now, so all I have to do [is] just go up, and just go out there and execute," Sawamura said.