Masataka Yoshida delivers an RBI sac-fly in Red Sox debut Friday
Red Sox fans have waited all winter for baseball to return. On Friday afternoon, the team played Northeastern as part of their annual meeting each spring.
Masataka Yoshida made his debut playing left field and batting fourth for manager Alex Cora.
Yoshida didn’t disappoint, delivering an RBI sac-fly in the first inning scoring Rafael Devers. The Japanese star told Alex Speier of the Boston Globe that once Northeastern junior LHP James Quinlivan got two strikes on him, that he wanted to hit the ball to the opposite field.
Yoshida accomplished his objective in that at-bat.
The new Red Sox left fielder played an inning and was replaced by Narciso Crook.
Following his exit from the game, Yoshida told Speier that he was excited to play in his first Red Sox game.
Prior to the game, Yoshida was taking outfield reps in left field. He was playing the wall in left field testing out the angles.
Yoshida has shown off his excellent sense of the strike zone, bat-to-ball skills, keen eye at the plate and his raw power.
Red Sox hitting coach Pete Fatse is impressed with his new outfielder’s power potential.
“He’s got a lot more juice than I thought,” hitting coach Pete Fatse said to Julian McWilliams of The Boston Globe. “Just doing a lot of the work on video, some of the reports came back seeing upwards of 70 raw power in batting practice. He’s got a lot of juice.”
Follow Chris on Twitter @ChrisHenrique
For additional Red Sox, Bruins, Patriots, MLB and NFL content follow Beyond the Monster on Twitter @BeyondtheMnstr.
