Apologize for being late. The day job has kept me up writing about the Japan Series until late and without a monitor to see the pitches or swings, it’s a little hard to report as I usually might. On the other hand, I get to talk to players a little before games, something most teams have worked this year to curtail since they could no longer use COVID as an excuse to restrict media access.

Prelude

Because of that access, I was able to have a few minutes with Yoshinobu Yamamoto after he practiced on Friday, and with Leandro Cedeno, Yuma Mune and Hanshin pitcher Jeremy Beasley.

Mune, who I need to start calling “DJ” because he’s the one who pulls the team boom box onto the field for practice. The first tune that came out was a reggaeton number he said he picked, although I didn’t ask whether he was in charge of the whole playlist. Another possible nickname might be “glove whisperer.” After he practiced, the Golden Glove third baseman was inspecting two different gloves, weighing each in his hands, manipulating them in various ways, putting them side by side on the dugout floor and prostrating himself to get a careful look at each in turn.

“They’re the same. They both have a lot of different lettering on them, and I wanted to see how they looked,” he said.

A day before he got lit up in Game 1, Yamamoto talked about his season and getting shelled in his playoff debut this year.

“I was able to pitch the whole season, but the best thing this year is that we won the pennant and as a player, knowing you contributed to that is really a good thing,” he said before going on to talk about allowing five runs in seven innings but getting the win against Lotte in their playoff opener, when he failed to snare a couple of sharp comebackers that led to a three-run first inning.