Saito is still up to old tricks

The skepticism was understandable. A 37-year-old pitcher with ho-hum statistics over 12 seasons in Japan suddenly was a premier closer in the major leagues.

Opponents would become wise to his wily ways the second time around.

Takashi Saito, not getting any younger, would lose the edge that enabled him to seamlessly replace Eric Gagne and notch 24 saves after beginning last season in triple A.

A sample of the preseason opinion, this from Keith Olbermann on his MSNBC blog: “The buzz on the Dodger bullpen is pretty well-heard. Saito’s trick delivery has gotten old and the hitters will solve him, thus causing Grady Little to switch to Jonathan Broxton.”

So far, the only buzz has been heard by opposing hitters when Saito’s pitches fly past their bats.

After giving up one run in his first outing -- which resulted in a save nonetheless -- he is unscored upon in seven subsequent appearances. He has struck out 10, walked one and converted all six of his save opportunities.

As for hitters supposedly solving Saito, Dodgers manager Little said that second-year fine-tuning works both ways. Saito still answers to “Sammy,” the nickname pinned on him last year by teammate Brad Penny, but otherwise remains mostly unknowable.

“Does anybody think a player will come to a new league and not make adjustments himself, bring something new to the party in his second year?” Little said. “Sammy doesn’t use the same repertoire he did last year. He varies his location. He varies his pitch selection. He varies how he pitches to each hitter.

“The only thing he does consistently is that he is consistently good.”

The affable Saito learned to adjust many years ago. He was an infielder at Tohoku Fukushi University in Sendai City, Japan, his hometown about 180 miles north of Tokyo, and his coach gave him an ultimatum.

The team was in a tournament and the light-hitting Saito was due to bat. The coach said, “If you don’t get a hit here, we’re going to make you a pitcher.”

Saito bounced into a double play and the coach followed through with the threat. Soon, though, Saito was a prospect on the mound, and within three years became a professional, bursting into the starting rotation of the Yokohama BayStars.

He has told his story to high school and youth players to make a point.

“Even if you fail and think it’s the end of the world, it’s not the end of the world,” he said. “Out of failure, there can be success. If I hadn’t grounded into that double play, I wouldn’t be pitching in the major leagues.”

The same might be true if Gagne hadn’t gotten injured late in spring training last year. Saito, who had signed a minor league contract, was promoted from Las Vegas in early April and became the closer in mid-May after Danys Baez failed in the role.

Saito responded with 107 strikeouts in 78 1/3 innings, giving up only 48 hits and posting an earned-run average of 2.07. His dominance was astounding considering that two years earlier he appeared washed up, going 2-5 with a 7.71 ERA for Yokohama.

“He was a power pitcher and for years was able to get away with blowing guys away with chest-high fastballs,” said Acey Kohrogi, the Dodgers’ director of Asian operations.

The Dodgers tried to sign him in 1999, but Yokohama made a lucrative offer and he stayed in Japan.

“Then he had a back injury and it lingered for a few years,” Kohrogi said. “His last year in Japan he came back strong, and our scout there said we should consider signing him.”

Saito was motivated by one thought.

“To get on a major league mound one time,” he said.

Age had given him wisdom, made him crafty. His slider is his best pitch, and Japanese batters who faced him a decade ago wouldn’t recognize him.

“You can have a fastball and still not be able to get hitters out, because you’re not throwing off the batter’s timing,” Saito said. “I mix speeds and locations.”

He has also become a student of major league hitters, preparing by sketching a nine-section strike zone for each hitter and marking areas of strength and weakness.

“Sammy is extremely smart,” Penny said. “He really knows how to pitch. That’s more and more obvious the longer you watch him.”

The only difficulty for Saito lately has been to come up with appropriate entrance music, a tough act to follow given Gagne’s jogs from the bullpen to the thunderous anthem “Welcome to the Jungle.”

Saito wanted something that involved taiko drums, which set a marching pace and once were used to motivate Japanese troops, so he went with a popular song from the 1980s called “Zenryaku, michi no ue yori” (Dear, from the top of the road) by Japanese pop band Isseifubi Sepia.

Predictably, it didn’t catch on, lasting only one game, April 10 against the Colorado Rockies.

“Somebody other than myself will pick the music,” Saito said after the game.

That didn’t work so well, either. Deep Purple’s 1972 anthem “Smoke on the Water” was played the next day, but Dodgers officials are thumbing through CDs for another song.

Does it really matter? Saito recorded saves in both of those games, giving him five in eight days. He picked up his sixth save a few days later at Arizona.

Although the younger Broxton is just as dominant, the closer job is Saito’s to keep until he falters or loses interest.

Saito is a protege of Kazuhiro Sasaki, who attended the same high school and college, and also played for Yokohama. Sasaki racked up 129 saves for the Seattle Mariners from 2000 to 2003 before returning to Japan, citing the need to be nearer to his family. Saito, with a wife and two school-aged daughters, feels the same tug.

“Before I came here, all I asked of my family was for a one-year opportunity to play in the United States,” Saito said.

It went so well he asked for another. The Dodgers increased his salary from the major league minimum of about $365,000 to $1 million.

He might be the team’s biggest bargain.

“Before I left Japan, I thought I’d fail, maybe without pitching at all in the majors,” he said. “Now I’m trying to continue doing my job. I’m very fortunate and I’m enjoying this very much.”

steve.henson@latimes.com