San Diego Padres pitcher Yuki Matsui (1) celebrates after a ground out to end the top of the fifth inning against the Milwaukee Brewers in game three of the NLDS for the 2026 MLB Playoffs at Petco Park on Oct. 6, 2026.

In a sense, the influx of Japanese-born players in Major League Baseball can be traced back to Hideo Nomo.

When Nomo left Japan in 1995, he achieved immediate success with the Los Angeles Dodgers, winning the National League Rookie of the Year Award. Soon after, a posting system was created.

The compounding effects of Japanese players' success in MLB — from Ichiro Suzuki to Hideki Matsui to Daisuke Matsuzaka to Shohei Ohtani — kept the floodgates open. Fifteen Japanese-born players appeared in a big league game in 2026.

Baseball is a small world. Nomo, now a Padres special advisor, helped bring Yuki Matsui to San Diego as a free agent during the 2023-24 offseason. And on Tuesday, Matsui and Dodgers pitcher Yoshinobu Yamamoto made history as the first pair of Japanese pitchers to record a win in a postseason game on the same day.

It wasn't necessarily bound to happen; the stars don't always align. But it's worth noting that, of the nine Japanese players who threw a pitch in an MLB game this year, six play for teams that reached the postseason.

Matsui has pitched in each of the first three games of the National League Division Series against the Milwaukee Brewers. He threw 23 pitches in Game 3 after throwing 27 pitches two days earlier in Game 2 — and 15 pitches in Game 1.

For that reason, it would be no surprise if manager Craig Stammen tries to stay away from using the left-hander in Game 4 on Wednesday.

So far, Matsui has been effective. He went 5-1 with a 1.83 ERA in 54 regular season appearances for the Padres. In four postseason appearances, he's allowed only one run (an unearned run in Game 2) in 4.1 innings.

Yamamoto started for the Dodgers in a critical Game 3 of their NLDS against the Atlanta Braves. He allowed one run in seven innings, and the Dodgers took a 2-1 lead in their best-of-five series.

The Padres can't take their eye off the task before them. Milwaukee is one win away from clinching the best-of-five NLDS, while the Padres must win Game 4 on Wednesday and Game 5 on Friday in Milwaukee to stave off elimination. If they advance, however, the Padres could face Yamamoto in the NL Championship Series.

An all-Southern California NLCS would be a big deal in Japan.