Yoshida making smooth transition

DETROIT — Alex Cora smiled and laughed a bit Saturday when asked how new left fielder Masataka Yoshida has made the transition to the Red Sox off the field.

“This guy, he gets it,” Cora said. “Just hanging out with his teammates, he wants to learn. He wants to be part of it.

“He’s not in his own world and he’s different than everybody else. It’s the other way around. Hanging out with the boys, he’s great. He’s a cool cat, I think.”

There’s no direct expression in Japanese for being a cool cat, although we were told “kakkoii neko” comes pretty close.

However you phrase it, Yoshida fits the bill. The 29-year-old had a lot going on over the last six months and handled it all smoothly. Whatever the environment, he has it under control.

Yoshida helped lead the Orix Buffaloes to the Japan Series championship in October. He then agreed to a fiveyear, $90 million deal with the Sox in December before joining Team Japan for the World Baseball Classic in March.

Under intense pressure, Japan won the tournament, with Yoshida going 9 for 22 with three extra-base hits and 13 RBIs in seven games.

Yoshida rejoined the Sox a day later, tired but ready to get back to work.

“It’s the same baseball I played in Japan,” Yoshida said via translator Keiichiro Wakabayashi. “The slight difference is facing pitchers I’ve never seen before.

“Pitchers throw more changeups than splitters. I get pitched inside with the fastball, then changeups down and away. That’s the biggest difference from Japan. But I’m learning how to adjust.”

Yoshida also finds the ballparks to be “totally different” than what he was used to in Japan, where most games are in domes.

“I’m anxious to see all the parks,” he said. “Being outside, playing on grass, it’s all new to me. But I like it.”

Yoshida has been able to handle the different challenges by compartmentalizing them.

“The WBC and the regular season were two separate and different things,” Yoshida said. “When I came back here to the Red Sox, I switched my mind to get ready for the regular season.

“That had not been a problem for me.”

The statistics back that up. Yoshida drew three walks and scored two runs in a 14-5 victory against the Tigers. He’s hitting only .233 but has a .378 on-base percentage through eight games and has scored eight runs.

Yoshida gets his bat on the ball, having struck out only two times in 37 plate appearances.

“I feel like for someone that’s in his shoes, he’s handled it all great,” teammate Alex Verdugo said. “He likes to joke around with us; he says things. We all love him.”

Verdugo thinks Yoshida is a solid player now and will be even better in a month or two.

“All of these pitchers, it’s the first time for him seeing them,” Verdugo said. “The more he plays, the more he watches, he’s going to get better. He controls his at-bats and you can see he knows what he wants to do.”

At the same time, it’s also a learning experience for the Sox coaches.

“We knew about the contact skills. He feels like he can drive the ball a little more, but so far so good,” Cora said.

“He’s been able to recognize pitches and doesn’t swing and miss in certain important spots. Little by little he’s feeling more comfortable. He’s a smart baseball player, you can see that.”

Yoshida also deals with more scrutiny than his teammates. Five Japanese media companies have representatives at the Sox-Tigers series. There are two from Boston.

That number will swell considerably starting Friday when the Los Angeles Angels and Shohei Ohtani arrive at Fenway Park for a four-game series.

Ohtani batted third and Yoshida fourth for Japan in the WBC, and Yoshida used the time to learn more about life in the major leagues from the Angels star.

Yoshida hopes to face Ohtani next weekend.

“Maybe not a home run, I’ll take a single or a double,” Yoshida said with a smile. “I’ve only faced him four times. It’ll be an honor to face him again. He’s one of the best players in the MLB right now.”

There is one task Yoshida hasn’t tackled yet: Investigating the Japanese restaurants in Boston.

“I’m looking forward to that,” he said.