{"id":611545,"date":"2026-03-07T11:02:28","date_gmt":"2026-03-07T11:02:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/611545\/"},"modified":"2026-03-07T11:02:28","modified_gmt":"2026-03-07T11:02:28","slug":"shohei-ohtani-and-hyeseong-kim-are-going-head-to-head-in-late-late-night-matchup","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/611545\/","title":{"rendered":"Shohei Ohtani and Hyeseong Kim Are Going Head-to-Head in Late, Late Night Matchup"},"content":{"rendered":"

Two prominent Los Angeles Dodgers are facing off in the World Baseball Classic Saturday morning<\/a>, but you\u2019ll either have to stay up very late or wake up very early to see it.<\/p>\n

Samurai Japan, the defending champions led by superstar Shohei Ohtani, is hosting Team Korea, which features Hyeseong Kim, at the Tokyo Dome.<\/p>\n

Advertisement<\/p>\n

The game is being broadcast on FS1, with first pitch set for 2 a.m. Pacific Time.<\/p>\n

Both teams are 1-0 thus far in the tournament, with Ohtani turning heads in his first game, hitting a grand slam and nearly hitting for the cycle.<\/p>\n

\"Los<\/p>\n

May 14, 2025; Los Angeles, California, USA; Los Angeles Dodgers second baseman Hyeseong Kim (6) celebrates with designated hitter Shohei Ohtani (17) after hitting a home run during the fifth inning against the Athletics at Dodger Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Jason Parkhurst-Imagn Images<\/p>\n

What Have Shohei Ohtani and Hyeseong Kim Said About the Game?<\/p>\n

The Dodgers teammates have spoken glowingly of each other ahead of this matchup, with both expressing some excitement.<\/p>\n

\u201cHyeseong Kim is a truly excellent player in character, so I always enjoy being around him,\u201d\u00a0Ohtani said<\/a>. \u201cIf we face each other, it will be a good opportunity for both of us.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kim said he\u2019s also excited about the chance to compete against his MLB teammate while representing his national team.<\/p>\n

Advertisement<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m definitely looking forward to it,\u201d\u00a0Kim said.<\/a>\u00a0\u201cI haven\u2019t played a ton against Team Japan with Team Korea, so I want to make sure I get to play against them this WBC. I just want to prepare the right way. It\u2019s an important game.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Aug<\/p>\n

Aug 4, 2021; Yokohama, Japan; Team Japan pitcher Yoshinobu Yamamoto (17) reacts against Korea in a baseball semifinal match during the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Summer Games at Yokohama Baseball Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Yukihito Taguchi-USA TODAY Sports<\/p>\n

Where is Yoshinobu Yamamoto?<\/p>\n

Yamamoto pitched in Japan\u2019s first game, a 13-0 rout of Chinese Taipei on Friday that also began at 2 a.m. PT.<\/p>\n

He pitched 2.2 innings and allowed no runs or hits. He struck out two and walked three over his 53 pitches.<\/p>\n

Because of that recent activity, he is unlikely to play Saturday morning.<\/p>\n

Though if Yamamoto did somehow come out and play again on Saturday, it wouldn\u2019t be the first time he\u2019s pitched on back-to-back days.<\/p>\n

And last time, it worked out pretty nicely for the World Series MVP.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Two prominent Los Angeles Dodgers are facing off in the World Baseball Classic Saturday morning, but you\u2019ll either…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":611546,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2406],"tags":[5,2178,39,1393,2372,1165,4332,4333,774,57,3224,4331,4,468,68124,1949,5824,4820,313],"class_list":["post-611545","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles-dodgers","tag-baseball","tag-california","tag-dodgers","tag-hyeseong-kim","tag-japan","tag-la","tag-la-dodgers","tag-ladodgers","tag-los-angeles","tag-los-angeles-dodgers","tag-losangeles","tag-losangelesdodgers","tag-mlb","tag-shohei-ohtani","tag-team-korea","tag-the-athletics","tag-usa","tag-world-baseball-classic","tag-yoshinobu-yamamoto"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116187560869125436","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/611545","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=611545"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/611545\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/611546"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=611545"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=611545"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=611545"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}