Kenta Maeda faced Ichiro for the first time and all of Japan won

It was new vs. old, then vs. now, one of MLB’s finest Japanese imports against the MLB’s hot new star from Japan.

Yet for Kenta Maeda, the Los Angeles Dodgers’ rookie pitcher, facing Ichiro was something more. It was going up against his childhood idol, against a man who is legit baseball royalty in their homeland. And in the end, their first meeting couldn’t have gone much better for Maeda.

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It happened in the second inning of Thursday night’s Dodgers-Marlins game. Ichiro fouled off Maeda’s first offering, a four-seamer at 90 mph. Then Maeda painted the outside corner with two sliders, the first a called strike and the second a called strike that sent Ichiro back to the dugout. 

In fairness, this is far from peak Ichiro. He’s 42 now and not an every day player for the Miami Marlins.

Nonetheless, this was still a premiere matchup back home in Japan, where they intently follow their players who have made the jump to MLB. 

Maeda, 28, is the latest star to come to America. His impact was immediate. Even though he took the loss Thursday, Maeda still carries just a 1.41 ERA through five starts. Before the Marlins tagged him for four earned runs, Maeda had allowed only one this season.

As for his matchup with Ichiro, it clearly went to Maeda, who held his hero hitless in three at-bats. Ichiro also popped up twice. Whatever the result, though, this was special for Japanese baseball fans.

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Mike Oz is the editor of Big League Stew on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter! Follow @MikeOz