In one of the most intriguing matchups in all of baseball this spring, Shintaro Fujinami and Shohei Ohtani lived up to the hype.
With Ohtani, we already knew what to expect, given he’s arguably the best baseball player alive. Fujinami is the one everybody, even A’s fans, were unsure about coming into this year. Formerly a top Japanese prospect who had a rough stretch of years before regaining his mojo in 2022, it’s been a big question mark of how he’ll adjust to Major League offenses.
Well in his American debut, he did his best to a put big fat X through that question mark, gutting his way to a performance that matched that of his opposing countrymate.