FORT MYERS, Fla. - The reminders of Monday night's memorable World Baseball Classic semifinal weren't difficult to find in the Red Sox' clubhouse Tuesday morning.
If it wasn't the players talking about Japan's walk-off win, the images on all the televisions revisiting the drama made sure the game was going to be top-of-mind.
And, of course, within most of the buzz was one name: Yoshida.
It was Masa Yoshida, whose locker was being kept safe by the Japanese flag draped over the space, who will now officially be the last to return to Red Sox' camp thanks to his team playing Team USA in the WBC Final.
But even though Yoshida hasn't been doing his thing during the Red Sox' journey through Grapefruit League action, he certainly will be coming back to camp with plenty of anticipation thanks to the performance in the WBC. The latest example of his impact coming, of course, thanks to the three-run, game-tying home run in Monday night's win.
"After being around and seeing a lot, you know who is for real and who’s not," Red Sox infielder Kiké Hernandez told WEEI.com Tuesday morning. "We could tell right away he was going to be the real deal and he has proven it. Obviously, he has to do it over 162. But what he has been doing in this tournament, against really tough competition, is special."
"We knew he could hit. Obviously, doing the research for a couple of years, you know he stays inside the ball. You know he can hit. I think it’s just him doing it on a bigger stage, like we have seen. I think it’s great he is able to make a name for himself over here," noted Red Sox hitting coach Peter Fatse. "But a lot of things we have seen, we had seen him do over there, as well. The talent is there, obviously.
And in regard to the inside changeup Yoshida pulled just inside the foul pole to tie the game in the seventh inning, Fatse added, "You can’t hit that ball out unless you are staying inside the ball. The at-bat were he hit the two-strike pitch to left, the ball out over the plate, you see how he effortlessly stays inside the ball. You can’t do all of that unless he stays inside the ball, and that’s one of the thing that has jumped out to me early on is how well he stays inside the ball. He’s always inside the ball. It’s really impressive."
Yoshida has already set a WBC record for most RBI in a single tournament, totaling 13 heading into the final game. He is hitting .474 (9-for-19) with a 1.413 OPS and two home runs. He has also walked three times without a single strikeout.
Red Sox reliever Chris Martin has been watching the WBC with a keen eye, but already had an impression of Yoshida even before the tournament thanks to his stint in Japan.
"I faced him when he was young. Similar to Shohei (Ohtani), they have that mentality of not being scared. A lot of those guys might be scared if you threw a fastball in, but I remembered him not being like that. So coming over here I think that’s a big deal because we throw in, we throw hard. It’s going to be how he adjusts to that. Shohei talked about that, how the pitchers were more intense and it was hard. It’s different than over there.
"You feel out hitters and you can see. You read their face and they read us. It’s kind of like a chess game. He knows his whole country is watching and he gets a big hit. It shows a lot. Pretty clutch."
How Yoshida's recent run will translate remains to be seen. There will be more fastballs in, and likely a barrage of high heaters. ("I would assume at some point, too, there will be fastballs up in the zone, challenge his hands and seeing if they can speed him up," said Fatse.)
But nobody in the Red Sox' clubhouse is suggesting this has been anything but a step in the right direction for what figures to be the team's cleanup hitter.
"I think he’s a hybrid of a high-contact guy, high average and a power guy," Hernandez said. "Just seeing his tee work and his BP to his game approach, I think he’s a perfect combination of both and he really knows what he’s doing at the plate. Obviously, we all know about his plate discipline so he can really control an at-bat. When you have elite bat-to-ball skills and you have a lot of pop and you can also control the strike zone, that’s a really good combination that can lead to really good things."