Yokohama DeNA Baystars Trevor Bauer thanked the fans after making his first appearance in two years.
Bauer is an ace with a record of 83 wins, 69 losses, and an ERA of 3.79 in 222 major league games (1297⅔ innings). He won the National League Cy Young Award in 2020, when he went 5-4 with a 1.73 earned run average in 11 games (73 innings).
Ahead of the 2021 season, he signed a three-year, $102 million (approximately 134.5 billion won) contract with the Dodgers, but was suspended for 324 games as he was embroiled in a sexual assault controversy. His suspension was later reduced to 194 games, but he was released from the Dodgers and effectively kicked out of the major leagues.
Bauer, who has not played a single game in the major leagues since July 29, 2021 (Korean time), eventually signed a contract with Yokohama for $4 million (approximately 5.3 billion won) for one year and is aiming for a comeback in Japan. On the 16th, he made his first appearance in the second team game and pitched a good pitch with 4 hits and 6 strikeouts in 4 innings.
Bauer’s first game was attended by 2,680 spectators, forming a long line of fans who flocked to see Bauer even though it was a second-team game. The number of concurrent users on YouTube has exceeded 70,000.
Bauer, who expressed his feelings through Instagram, saying, “It was good to be able to go to the ballpark again,” said, “The support from Japanese and American fans was unbelievably overwhelming. YouTube live viewers were more than 15 times the usual. And he set a record crowd. Fans are really the best.” 스포츠토토
Japanese media Full Count said, “When Bauer took the mound for the first time since 2021, the baseball field and the Internet were turned upside down. Bauer, who just received the 2020 National League Cy Young Award, is called the strongest foreign pitcher in history.”