Former Los Angeles Dodgers star Trevor Bauer took part in his first pitching practice at Yokohama Stadium on Monday in preparation for his Nippon Professional Baseball debut with the Central League-leading DeNA BayStars.
DeNA skipper Daisuke Miura revealed the previous day that the 2020 Cy Young winner will start Wednesday's CL game against the Hiroshima Carp, whose lineup is likely to include Shogo Akiyama, a former teammate of Bauer with the Cincinnati Reds.
The scheduled start comes five days after Bauer threw 93 pitches for the BayStars' affiliate in the second-tier Eastern League. In three Eastern League games, the 32-year-old right-hander had 17 strikeouts over 16 innings with a 2.25 ERA.
The BayStars acquired the unsigned Bauer in March on a one-year deal after he received an MLB record 324-game suspension, reduced to 194 games through arbitration, for domestic violence.
The Dodgers released Bauer in January in the wake of the suspension, which was handed down after the former All-Star declined to deny allegations of domestic abuse under oath during an application for a restraining order against him.
Other MLB teams could have signed the pitcher with a career 83-69 record and a 3.79 ERA, but there were no takers until the BayStars offered him a deal.
