Los Angeles Dodgers Peter O'Malley began reaching out in 1980 by starting clinics in China and South Korea, building baseball fields in two Chinese cities, and in 1998 becoming the first major league team to open an office in Asia. The Dodgers were the second team to start a Japanese player in recent history, pitcher Hideo Nomo, the first team to start a South Korean player, pitcher Chan Ho Park, and the first Taiwanese player, Chin-Feng Chen. In addition, they were the first team to send out three Asian pitchers, from different Asian countries, in one game: Park, Hong-Chih Kuo of Taiwan, and
Toshiya Sugiuchi second round, throwing three shutout innings and being credited with a save. He was also used as a left-handed specialist in the tournament finals against South Korea. On April 5, in his first start of the regular season against the Orix Buffaloes, Sugiuchi struck out five over 7⅔ innings to bring his career strikeout total to 1003. He was the fourth-fastest pitcher in NPB history to amass 1000 career strikeouts (following Hideo Nomo, Kazuhisa Ishii and Yutaka Enatsu), doing so in 979⅓ innings. He became the 318th pitcher in Japanese professional baseball to amass 1000 career innings in a start