Lotte's fall practice was held at Zozo Marine Stadium on the 25th.

It had been raining since the morning, so practice was held in an indoor practice field. During batting practice, Ryusei Terachi initially held the bat a little shorter and hit with no step, but after a while he held the bat a little shorter and raised his leg to hit, and then this time he held the bat a little longer and raised his leg to hit.

When asked why, he explained, "When I'm not stepping, I can pull the ball in and confirm that I can hit it at a good spot for me, so I just focus on creating a solid no-step axis so that my axis doesn't waver when I raise my foot, and then holding the bat short and compactly to hit the ball. Rather than doing this specifically in a game, I focus on practicing so that I can keep my axis solid with my foot raised without wavering."

Watching the batting practice during this fall training, you can see that they are hitting at various times.

"I think that now is the only time we can check things like, 'What would happen if I lifted my leg at this timing?' So I think that now we can check in various places things like, 'This is what happened when the pitcher lifted his leg at this timing,' 'It would have been better if it had been at this timing,' or 'Conversely, it wouldn't have worked if it had been at this timing,' so I'm also working on that kind of thing."

When we're doing batting practice outside, we throw in some bunts and bunt-and-runs early on.

"For me, the timing is right for a bunt. As pitcher moves, I pull back and I'm able to hit with the flow, so that happens, and I think that a bunt or bunt-and-run is a sign that will come to me in the future, so I'm trying to get a good grasp on it in practice now."

Teraji's batting practice seems to have a set theme each day. "I look back on the day and think about the good and bad times that happened during practice, and I try to minimize those times and try to turn the bad times in a positive direction."

On this day, after the whole team practice was over, Teraji had individual practice batting practice, and while the other players were finishing their practice in the indoor practice field, he put on protective gear and defense defense-on-one with coach Naoya Emura.

Teraji looked ahead and said, "I'm the worst at it, and (a newcomer) will be joining next year. I don't think I'm in a position to be complacent, so I don't think there's any harm in doing it now. I'm doing it for my own good, so I'll do my best to keep up."

Although it may seem like he is immersed in baseball 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, Teraji himself smiled and said, "I do switch off when I need to, so I make sure to keep that balance."

◆ Ryusei Ogawa "Make sure you do a lot of the basics"

Ryusei Ogawa 's last error was against Orix on July 19th, and from the game against Orix on July 20th, he played defense and finished the season without making an error in 41 consecutive games.

This fall, when it comes to defense, he is honing his fundamentals, saying, "I think that in the fall and off-season I'll be able to practice the most basic fundamentals, so I'm doing a lot of the basics with the intention of improving defense even more."

This season, he made three errors in 48 games at short stop and one error in 40 games at second baseman. In previous interviews, he has seemed more confident in defense at short stop than at second baseman, but which position is he playing with more confidence at the moment?

"second baseman is also seeing some results, and the numbers in various data are improving, so I think second baseman team is gradually gaining confidence, but rather than one being more confident than the other, I think both teams have grown to a certain extent. I think they've grown little by little and are gaining confidence."

He is expected to win the Golden Glove Award in the future. I wonder if he would like to win it as second baseman or short stop.

"I don't have any preference as to which one, but since it's an award I want to win for defense, I'll work hard and try to win one of them."

Interview and text by Yuta Iwashita