Red Sox Notebook: On a cold frigid Opening day at Fenway Park, Masataka Yoshida collects his first major league hit
If you were at Red Sox Opening Day on Thursday, you would have felt the electricity in the air for the start of the baseball season. You also would have felt how cold it was outside, the temperature was a chilly 38-degrees by the time Corey Kluber threw the first pitch.
New Red Sox rookie Masataka Yoshida felt how cold it was but he didn’t care, he was excited for his first major league game.
“Very cold,” Yoshida said to reporters including MassLive’s Christopher Smith.
“It was cold but my heart was burnt,” Yoshida added through translator Keiichiro Wakabayashi.
The cold weather didn’t stop Yoshida from collecting his first hit as a big leaguer. The 29-year-old took a Keegan Akin 90.7 mph fastball back up the middle to centerfield. Yoshida’s base hit scored Rafael Devers.
The Japanese star had two hits, his second coming in the eight inning off of Orioles right-hander Bryan Baker. His second hit was scorched, it had a 100.5 mph exit velocity.
“I think I was able to adjust really good (to velocity) today,” Yoshida said. “But I need to keep adjusting.”
Red Sox fans showed their support for Yoshida, chanting his name later in the game as the club tried to make a comeback. With the Sox down 10-8 in the ninth-inning, Fenway came alive with chants of his name, which was something that didn’t go unnoticed to Yoshida.
“This is a really great experience,” he said. “This is a new step in my career. And I was really excited to play where I wanted to go.”
Follow Chris on Twitter @ChrisHenrique
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