Dodger Verdict Is Yes on Nomo’s First Start : Baseball: Japanese pitcher allows two earned runs and six hits in 5 1/3 innings, while striking out six.

All these years it had seemed that Peter O’Malley’s interest in international baseball was merely a hobby. A passion, if you will, like golf.

But Thursday night, the Dodger owner proved again that those countless trips abroad have not been merely for goodwill.

Before O’Malley, Tom Lasorda and a large Dodger contingent at the Epicenter, Japanese pitcher Hideo Nomo made his U.S. professional debut, pitching in a Class-A California League game for the Bakersfield Blaze against the Rancho Cucamonga Quakes.

He pitched well for five innings--throwing mostly 90-m.p.h. fastballs and mixing in some forkballs--before giving up two runs in the sixth. But by then, it wouldn’t have mattered what he did. The verdict has been in for days.

“He is on his way to a major league start,” said Fred Claire, Dodger executive vice president.

Nomo is not yet on the Dodgers’ 40-man roster, but he will be in a few days. And although it has not been announced, Nomo is scheduled to make his major league debut in San Franciso’s Candlestick Park next Tuesday against the Giants.

A total of 200 credentials have already been issued for that game. But the media crush at Thursday night’s game was proportionately equal, considering the size of the ballpark.

About 75 reporters and camera crews--most of them Japanese--crowded around Nomo in the clubhouse after he finished pitching. The Quakes called it their Super Bowl.

“I don’t blame (the crowd) because I know Rancho Cucamonga is close to Los Angeles,” Nomo said through an interpreter.

Nomo’s debut was not lost on the sellout crowd of 6,526, many of whom stood in applause when Nomo left the game. For 5 1/3 innings, he entertained the crowd with a windup few had ever seen, a twisting motion that has earned him the nickname, “the Tornado.”

“It’s a lot like (Luis) Tiant’s delivery--he doesn’t go until he’s balanced,” said Dave Wallace, the Dodgers’ pitching coach.

Nomo faltered in the sixth inning, giving up three hits and two runs and walking his final batter on four consecutive pitches. He gave up two earned runs and six hits in 5 1/3 innings, while striking out six and walking one. He had two runners steal bases on him, and he hit a batter in the back.

But the goal for the Dodgers was for Nomo to throw about 90 pitches and stay ready for his next start, which will be the big one.

“It is exciting,” O’Malley said. “He it trying to do something that no one has done, and that is play in the major leagues after having played professionally in Japan. Nobody has ever done that before, and this man is on the threshold.”

Nomo, 26, was a famous baseball player in Japan, leading that nation’s Pacific League in strikeouts and victories in four of his five seasons, but his goal was to play in the United States. He is all but assured of becoming the first Japanese player to reach the major leagues since Masanori Murakami pitched for the San Francisco Giants 30 years ago.

“But Murakami didn’t play professionally in Japan; nobody has ever done this before,” O’Malley said. Murakami did play in the Japanese major leagues after playing in the United States.

Nomo’s wife, Kikuko, and their son, Takahiro, have joined him in Los Angeles. Nomo hopes his stay here will be a long one. “I want to make a good record so future players will follow me in a better way.”