David MacKinnon was one of only two batters — out of 636 — to hit a home run against Orix Buffaloes ace Yoshinobu Yamamoto during the 2023 NPB season. The former Seibu Lions infielder looks back at that line drive to the left in Osaka on May 6 as, “a pretty cool memory to have.”

“I was like, dang, that's probably the best person I'll ever hit a homer off of,” he told The Japan Times on Friday.

MacKinnon, who played in MLB before his stint with Seibu, has seen the tremendous hype surrounding Yamamoto’s move to the Los Angeles Dodgers. He does not, however, need to pay much attention to it. He knows the hype is real because he knows how tough it is to face Yamamoto.

"He just mixes," said MacKinnon, who joined the Samsung Lions of the Korea Baseball Organization in the offseason. "He's got a little bit of run on the fastball, the four-seamer. So when he goes away to righties, the fastball looks like it's really far away and sometimes it runs back. Sometimes it doesn't run back but the umpire calls it a strike anyway, but he earned that strike call in Japan.

“The strike zone is a little bit smaller in the States width-wise, but it's higher. So I think he'll be able to go up in the zone a little bit more and get those strike calls. That'll be good for him because his fastball does play when it's up in the zone. It's a hard pitch to hit, but if you don't have to worry about it, it forces him to pitch down. But he's got a cutter and two-seamer.”

MacKinnon calls Yamamoto’s stuff “nasty,” and says he is adept at locating weaknesses.

"He's good at figuring out how to pitch guys and what they struggle with," MacKinnon said. "And that's how he attacks you."

Yamamoto is one of the most-hyped pitchers to land in MLB in recent memory.

He was dominant in Japan with a 1.82 ERA and 922 strikeouts in 897 career innings. He was almost historic over the past three seasons, compiling a 1.44 ERA in 550⅔ innings and winning the last three Pacific League MVP and Sawamura Awards. His mix of power, stuff and command have some wondering if the 25-year-old right-hander is already the best pitcher on the planet.

Yamamoto was 16-6 with a 1.21 ERA and 169 strikeouts in 164 innings in 2023. He finished with a 0.88 WHIP and 6.04 strikeout-to-walk ratio. Opponents hit .198 against him.

“I had five games against him, and there were three days where I was like, OK, I have a chance to hit him,” said MacKinnon, who was 3-for-14 with three walks against Yamamoto. “But there were two days where I was like, I got no shot, he’s just that nasty today. I think (Roki) Sasaki is the same way, where when they have their 'A' game, hopefully you can walk once or hit a bad single or something, but there’s just no way you’re going to do damage off them.

"He's not going to throw you a hanging breaking ball. He's not going to hang his splitter. It's going to be 95 to 98 (mph). There are certain days where he's 92 to 95 and maybe he's a little tired or something is going on. We caught him one time at Seibu where he was like 92, 95 and he didn't look unhittable that night. But when we caught him in Kobe, I had no chance. No one had a chance.

"He's just that good. It just depends on the night. But even when he doesn't have his best stuff, he's still going seven innings. You might score one off him, or two if you're lucky. But if he had his best stuff, you just weren't going to score that night."

The Dodgers signed Yamamoto to a 12-year deal worth $325 million — the most guaranteed money for a pitcher in MLB history – in December and paid Orix a posting fee of around $50 million.

MLB Network listed Yamamoto as No. 61 on its list of the Top 100 Players Right Now before his first pitch in the majors, and many expect him to climb once he toes the rubber.

His first live batting practice session on Saturday morning was a “must-see event,” according to an article in The Athletic by Sam Blum, who reported most of the Dodgers’ pitching coaches, front office and nearly 1,000 fans watched.

Yamamoto threw 28 pitches, showing off his powerful fastball and command of his breaking pitches. He gave himself a score of “85,” according to Sports Nippon. He also made an impression on his new teammates. Mookie Betts, according to MLB.com, gave Yamamoto a standing ovation afterward.

“That was incredible,” Freddie Freeman told Bill Plunkett of the Orange County Register. “Nasty.”

Yamamoto overhauled his pitching motion before the 2023 NPB season and removed his leg kick, utilizing almost a slide step forward. He still, however, generates lots of power. His average fastball velocity last season was 153 kph (95 mph), per Deltagraphs. Freeman told the Los Angeles Times’ Jack Harris that Yamamoto also has “a lot of moving parts” and predicted hitters would have trouble getting used to him early on.

MacKinnon said the thing he would advise batters to do is just “get ready.”

“It’s not fun the first time you see him,” he said. “You know the leg kick isn’t a leg kick. It’s kind of like a step forward. It’s quick, but until you see it come at you, you don’t realize how quick it is. Even though you know he's not going to do a leg kick, it was like 'whoa.' He just kind of explodes forward at you.

“I think the biggest thing is get ready early and just be ready. I would tell my buddies, if they ask, to be ready for 88 to 98 (mph). If he lands a curveball, good for him. That pitch is going to be a hard pitch to hit anyway. His 78-mile-an-hour curveball, it moves so much. Just be ready for 88 to 98, and you’ll have the best chance of at least putting a barrel on the ball and hopefully getting a hit.

“You can’t cover everything. I would just say be ready away, just look away. I’m talking as a righty, he throws the fastball and the splitter and the slider away. Just look out over there and just try to hit the ball center, right-center. You’re not going to take him deep too often.

"That's all I would tell them, just ... good luck. It just depends on the day. Look outside, hopefully it’s 88 to 98 and good luck.”

Yamamoto’s motion is not unique, but he combines it with his mastery of the craft.

“I think that’s also the problem with Yamamoto,” MacKinnon said. “You have to time him up, but then you also have to hit five or six pitches.”

MacKinnon’s homer off Yamamoto — on a 151-kph (94-mph) high, slightly inside fastball — was the first the former Buffaloes ace allowed in 2023.

“I was seeing the ball pretty good,” MacKinnon said. “He left it maybe middle in, but it was up. I don’t know how I got to it. I kind of blacked out and I just swung and hit it.”

The Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks’ Masaki Mimori was the only other player to go deep against Yamamoto in the regular season (the Hanshin Tigers' Sheldon Neuse hit a solo homer against him in Game 6 of the Japan Series), forming one of the most exclusive clubs in NPB with MacKinnon.

"We're just two lucky guys," MacKinnon said. "Mimori is a good player. I wasn't too surprised."