Lotte's Ryusei Ogawa had a batting average of .364 in September (20 hit in 55 At Bat) and a batting average of .263 for the season, and the results are showing as he has been swinging his bat desperately since fall practice in November 2011 in order to acquire the ``feel for hitting low line drive to the shortstop/third base area.''

"My intuition has really improved, I'm getting good results in games, and I'm increasingly able to bat the way I want to. I think that's where I'm getting better."

In his fourth at-bat in the eighth inning against Rakuten on September 13th, with the score at 6-2 and no runner on base, he persevered against Chia-Hao Sung, hitting change-up on the 11th pitch with 3 balls and 2 strike to center fielder hit for a hit.In his third at-bat in the seventh inning against Nippon-Ham on September 28th, with the score at 3-3 and one out and no runner on base, he was down to two pitches against Sachiya Yamazaki, but he persevered with balls and fouls, and with 3 balls and 2 strike, he let the seventh pitch, a 142 km/ fastball on the outside corner, draw a Walk, and both were good at-bats.

"Until I'm backed into a corner, I focus on hitting easy pitches, and once I'm backed into a corner, I focus on being persistent and forcing the batter to throw a number of pitches so I can get on base.As a result, I'd be happy if I could get a hit, and I'm fine with Walk as long as I get on base, so I think I'm getting more at-bats like that."

Since the game against Softbank on June 29th, he has been using a "torpedo bat," which has a thicker core than a regular bat, but in the game against Seibu at Belluna Dome on September 29th, he looked like a regular bat, not a torpedo bat.

"With the torpedo, I sometimes felt it was a little weak when I hit the ball first, so I tried a regular bat with the center of gravity closer to the grip. I'm trying out different bats, hoping to find one that suits my batting style as much as possible. I've had good results with the torpedo, so I'm trying out different things."

Orix Defensively, he has gone 39 games without an error since July 19, when he made an error against Orix, and 39 games without an error since July 20, when he took over at defense.

"In the first half of the season I made some simple mistakes and some trivial mistakes, so I spent the whole season practicing to eliminate those kinds of mistakes, and I think it was a good thing that I was able to make no mistakes in the second half."

With two games remaining, I wonder how they want to carry this momentum into next year.

"In the second half, I was able to bat well and defense without making any mistakes, so if I can continue from the beginning of the season, I think I will be able to get closer to regulars, so I want to aim for a sense of stability and a place with few waves." The remaining two games to be played in Zozo Marine Stadium will also be active in offense and defense in front of The Marines fans.

Interview and text by Yuta Iwashita