PORT CHARLOTTE, Fla. -- Over the last two weeks, most people around Rays camp have been looking forward to seeing Yoshitomo Tsutsugo take the field for his first game in the United States.
After enjoying 10 seasons during his illustrious career in Japan, Tsutsugo finally made his debut on Sunday, going 1-for-1 with a single and a walk in Tampa Bay’s 9-7 win over the Yankees at Charlotte Sports Park.
“Good for Yoshi to get on base, get the hit and he looked comfortable in left field,” said Rays manager Kevin Cash. “If he would’ve gone 0-for-2, we wouldn’t have felt any different about him, so 1-for-1 with a walk doesn’t change much. But for him, you always want guys to have a little bit of success and enjoy it, and I think he did.”
In his first at-bat, Tsutsugo showed off his discipline by laying off a couple of pitches before getting one he could handle from Yankees pitcher David Hale. Tsutsugo hit a ball hard back up the middle that hit Hale’s glove before hopping into center field.
Tsutsugo's second at-bat, however, might’ve been even more impressive. He laid off a couple of tough pitches from Nick Nelson, including a 2-2 breaking ball that was a strike for most of the pitch path. One pitch later, Tsutsugo drew the walk.
“I think there’s a difference in the strike zone in the two countries, and also I was seeing different velocity here,” Tsutsugo said through team interpreter Louis Chao. “This is the first game and I wanted to see it with my own eyes.”
Tsutsugo also held his own, defensively. Kevin Kiermaier and Tsutsugo have developed an early relationship in the outfield and it showed on Sunday. In the fourth inning, Kiermaier and Tsutsugo displayed solid communication on a fly ball hit to left-center field by Thairo Estrada.
The play even set up a joke for Tsutsugo after the game.
“I’ve never seen anybody run that fast -- besides me -- in the outfield,” Tsutsugo joked. “I’m really happy to play beside him because he helped me a lot in the outfield. He told me where to stand for positioning. So I was really happy to have him beside me.”
Kiermaier, a three-time Gold Glove Award winner, has been impressed with how receptive Tsutsugo has been to advice. Kiermaier has also been happy with how Tsutsugo wants to communicate in order to ease the transition.
“All you hear about is how he can hit and handle the bat, but he looks very comfortable out there in the outfield,” Kiermaier said. “I think he’s going to surprise a lot of people with what he can do on that side of the ball.”
Tsutsugo will play again on Monday against the Red Sox at Charlotte Sports Park. He will serve as the team’s designated hitter and is scheduled to hit fifth. The amount of at-bats throughout the spring will ultimately come down to Tsutsugo, but the expectation is that he will get around 45-50 at-bats over the next five weeks. But so far, so good for the Japanese slugger.
“We’re still a few weeks away from the beginning of the season, so I think there’s still a lot of difference that I need to verify with my own eyes,” Tsutsugo said. “Just try and learn as much as I can before the beginning of the season.”