YOKOHAMA, Japan – Former Major League Baseball pitcher Trevor Bauer won his debut start with Nippon Professional Baseball’s Yokohama DeNA BayStars on Wednesday at Yokohama Stadium.
The former Cy Young Award winner pitched seven innings, allowing just one run and seven hits while striking out nine in a 98-pitch performance to earn the 4-1 victory over the Hiroshima Carp. A total of 33,202 fans attended Bauer’s NPB debut, marking a new BayStars record, according to the team.
“I felt great,” Bauer said, according to ESPN. “I just felt normal. The body felt good: command, velocity, results. All good. It was a great day.”
Bauer also batted in the game, as NPB does not have a designated hitter rule. He went 0-for-2 at the plate with a groundout, a strikeout and a sacrifice bunt.
Wednesday’s start was Bauer’s first game with the BayStars since signing a one-year, $4 million contract in March.
It was also Bauer’s first official game since June 2021, when he was a member of MLB’s Los Angeles Dodgers. The team placed Bauer on administrative leave in July 2021 after a Southern California woman accused him of sexually assaulting her, and MLB suspended him for 324 games – equivalent to two full MLB seasons – in April 2022 after conducting a nine-month investigation. He was not charged with a crime.
That suspension was reduced to 194 games by an independent arbitrator in December 2022, but the Dodgers instead opted to release Bauer in January. Bauer joined the BayStars in March after no other MLB teams showed interested in signing the 32-year-old pitcher.
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