SAITO ALREADY HITS RIGHT PITCH 36-YEAR-OLD RELIEVER FITS IN FAST.

Byline: TONY JACKSON  Staff Writer

Takashi Saito came to spring training with the Dodgers on a minor-league contract after 14 illustrious seasons with the Yokohama Baystars  of Japan's Central League, during which he had been an All-Star both as a starter and a closer.

He never had lived in the United States, never pitched in the major leagues and spoke so little English he still needed an interpreter for interviews.

But nothing bridges cultural gaps like karaoke.

"We went to dinner one night, and there was a club next door that had it," Dodgers pitcher Brad Penny said. "He got up and sang `Hey Jude,' and he was really good."

So Penny came up with an elaborate plan, to be put into place at one of the daily morning meetings that manager Grady Little held all spring with the entire team. It started with Penny renting a karaoke machine. With Little's blessing, Penny then told Saito that all the rookies would be forced to sing and that Saito would go first.

The next morning, Saito dutifully belted out a stirring rendition of that old Beatles standard, then calmly sat and waited for the next neophyte to take his turn.

Except that there was no next neophyte.

"We told him all the other rookies had already been sent down," Little said.

The joke might have been on Saito, but he was laughing as hard as anyone. That good-naturedness has made him an easy fit in a foreign environment. He also has readily accepted his new nickname of "Sammy," even though no one is quite sure how it came about or who gave it to him.

"Mostly, I think it's just because Sammy is easier to say than Takashi," Little said.

But there is much more to Saito than a fun-loving guy who can endear himself quickly to new teammates. There also is a fierce competitor, a pitcher who appears to still be in his prime at the age of 36. After having his contract purchased from Triple-A LasVegas on April 7 when Eric Gagne went on the disabled list, Saito quickly claimed the primary setup role Little had been so reluctant to bestow on anyone.

In six appearances since then, Saito has yet to allow a single baserunner - either his own or the six he has inherited - to cross home plate.

"I think that (inherited-runners statistic) is huge," Dodgers general manager Ned Colletti said. "I think that tells a lot about a reliever. You could have a great ERA, but it doesn't matter if you're giving up everybody else's runs.

"Saito is a rookie only in the technical sense, because he never has pitched in the U.S., and in the humble manner in which he carries himself. But in every other way, he is a savvy veteran, which is why it isn't terribly surprising that he distinguished himself so quickly."

The Dodgers had scouted Saito for years. They came close to signing him three winters ago, when he first thought of coming to America. At the time, the Baystars used a lucrative, three-year contract to keep him, but the Dodgers - specifically Asian operations director Acey Kohrogi and Japan-based scout Kojima Keiichi - continued to keep tabs. When Saito became a free agent again last fall, they swooped in.

"By that time, he had basically decided he was coming at all costs," Kohrogi said. "He talked with his wife and his family, and they were 100 percent supportive of his decision to come to the United States."

Kohrogi and Keiichi asked amateur scouting director Logan White and national crosschecker Gib Bodet to look at video of Saito just to build a consensus, and all four agreed the club should sign him to a low-risk minor-league deal.

"We felt he was a young 35 at the time," Kohrogi said. "He had been a college sophomore when he started pitching."

Saito also was fully recovered from back surgery he underwent a couple of years earlier, which had relegated him to spot starts and middle relief. Although he knew there would be no guarantees, he came to spring training ready to finally fulfill his longtime dream.

And when the Dodgers reassigned him to minor-league camp March 23, Saito took it like a professional.

"When he went down, he was on a mission," Kohrogi said. "Grady and (pitching coach) Rick (Honeycutt) had told him what they wanted him to work on, and he was going to go work on it."

Two weeks later, Saito was in the majors. He made his debut April 9, coming on with runners at first and second and one out in the first game of a doubleheader and getting Philadelphia's David Bell to ground into an inning-ending double play.

His most impressive performance might have come Tuesday night, when he entered to begin the eighth inning of a 1-1 tie and set down six consecutive Chicago Cubs. He struck out four, including hot-hitting Todd Walker and Derrek Lee, didn't allow a ball to leave the infield, and got his first major-league win on J.D. Drew's walk-off double in the ninth.

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