Blue towels swirled around in every section of Dodger Stadium as his entrance song started to play.
Yoshinobu Yamamoto stepped on the mound and into the chaos wearing a mask of calm. His appearance was misleading.
Inside, he was terrified.
“I think that was the game for which I was the most nervous in my entire baseball career,” Yamamoto said in Japanese.
Yamamoto can laugh now about his memories of Game 5 of the National League Division Series against the San Diego Padres last season, knowing what was revealed on that October night and the path on which it set him.