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The story
Dodgers pitcher Yoshinobu Yamamoto started on the road against the Reds on the 15th (16th Japan time), throwing seven scoreless innings on one hit for his 14th win of the season — a career high. According to Yahoo News, after the game Yamamoto said of Roki Sasaki, “He won’t talk to me,” lamenting that with Shohei Ohtani away, “I have no one to talk to.” On the 5channel entertainment/sports board (Geinou Sports Express+), most posters took the remark as a lighthearted joke, while others speculated about Sasaki’s English ability, the reality of communicating through an interpreter, whether a dialect barrier might be at play, and even Yamamoto’s close rapport with pitcher Blake Snell — the thread wandered well beyond his pitching stats.
Yoshinobu Yamamoto: “Roki won’t talk to me” — A surprising remark… With Ohtani away, “I have no one to talk to”
[MLB] Dodgers 4-0 Reds (Cincinnati, 16th Japan time)
Dodgers pitcher Yoshinobu Yamamoto started on the road against the Reds on the 15th (16th Japan time), delivering a brilliant outing of seven scoreless innings on one hit to notch his 14th win of the season, a new career high.
Source: news.yahoo.co.jp / Read the original article here
What people said
bad at socializing lol
Can't even take a joke
Sounds like Skubal gets jealous
There was an article saying that when he met his former Orix teammate (now with the Tigers), Wagespack, this year, his English had improved so much that even with an interpreter there, he barely needed one
Snell: "oh…"
stuff like this is probably why guys like Snell like him
Either way, it's a day that drains you mentally, so casual small talk just isn't happening
As his senior
He definitely doesn't want to hear that from you lol
Would be funny if Yamamoto and Sasaki were talking through an iPad. Though I bet you meant something else…
(riffing on) Rohan Kishibe Does Not Move
So Roki's the Chiikawa type, huh, makes sense
As for fish, seared squid'll do
During free agency he got invited to lavish meals by every team day after day and got wined and dined — they called him 'Meshi-Nobu' (a pun combining meshi, 'meal,' with Yoshinobu)
'Otani-san' is a communication superhuman
So does that mean he looks down on Yoshinobu, who's from a vocational high school?
Apparently it's a regular academic track with a hensachi of 51-53, but can that many kids really get in with that these days? (hensachi = Japan's standardized academic deviation score, where 50 is average)
Background and Talking Points
This story is a classic case of a post-game quote from Yahoo News being turned straight into a headline — it’s unclear from the article alone how much of “he won’t talk to me” is Yamamoto’s exact wording. That’s also where thread reactions split: most read it as a lighthearted jab riffing on Ohtani’s absence, while others dug into the practical side of communication — Sasaki’s English ability, the need for an interpreter, and theories that his Iwate dialect might be a barrier. Side trivia that came up alongside it — like how close Yamamoto and Blake Snell are, or the deviation score of Sasaki’s old high school — is really a sign of how little the thread actually discussed his pitching line itself (a career-high 14th win, seven scoreless innings on one hit). One thing readers could easily misread: this remark isn’t a knock on Sasaki — it’s reported as Yamamoto’s own self-deprecating joke about having no one to talk to, not a jab at Sasaki’s character or ability.
※This article is excerpted and summarized from the 5channel (sports news board) thread “[MLB] Yoshinobu Yamamoto: “Roki Sasaki won’t talk to me” — A surprising remark… With Shohei Ohtani away, “I have no one to talk to”.”
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