Lotte's Atsuya Hirohata, in his fourth year as a professional this season, pitched in eight games, 7 2/3 innings, with a record of 0 wins and 1 loss and an ERA of 5.87, and was unable to establish himself in the first team.

For this season, Hirohata's training consisted of "basically not throwing with all my might." He analyzed, "It may seem strange not to throw with all my might, but I think it's important to transmit my strength properly when throwing, so I've been valuing that and continuing to do so since this year's training, and I think that's what's leading to my current good condition."

In the spring camp, he joined the first team from the Okinawa expedition and pitched in a practice game against Yakult on February 18 and a practice game against Hanwha on February 23, but since the beginning of March, he has been pitching in the spring education league. Still, they closer a runs in the The Giants Open on March 21 and 23. Especially in the open match against The Giants, fork was brilliant. In the open game on March 21st, the 4th pitch, 139 kg fork, which took a swing struck out from 1 ball 2 strike to the 5th inning with a score of 2-5, was a good fall from the strike zone to the ball zone.

"It's all about the swing of my arm. I'm trying to be conscious of not changing my arm swing too much between fastballs and breaking ball, and the reason I've been doing so well recently is because I'm not making mistakes with the height. It's fine if it's a ball, but the fact that I'm swinging there means that it's in the ball zone and not hitting it, so I think that's good."

Until now, he has expressed the view that "all pitches are his signature pitches," but perhaps he wants to make fork his signature pitch.

"I don't have that kind of thing. I choose good pitches during the game. fork happens to be good, so catcher gives me the sign for fork, but in practice games, after two strike, I throw a curveball, slider, and a variety of other pitches, and I'm getting strikeouts and missed batters, so I think that's a good thing."

Although he will start the season with the farm team, he said, "Of course I want to show that I'm in good shape, and it's important to show that I'm holding the ball closer now, but I also have to show why I'm holding the closer back. Whether that's fork, another breaking ball, or a fastball, I need to show that batters are jamming my fastball and not hitting breaking ball. Otherwise I think it'll be difficult to break into the current first-team reliever corps, so I hope I can do that well." He pitched 11 games in 13 2/3 innings, strike out and posting ERA of 0.00.

He explained about the reason why he has been able to closer play without runs being on the farm: "My control is not that bad, and I have confidence in it, so I try to play within the zone and throw the next pitch in there. closer For example, this year, I have a high probability of swinging at the ball, so I think that because I am pitcher aware that I throw in the strike zone, I am able to swing at the low fork ball and the outside slider ball.

He was promoted for the first time this season on May 4th, and in his first appearance of the season on May 5th against Rakuten, closer one scoreless runs saying, "Walk walked two batters, but I was able to show what I've been doing to the first two hitter, so I think that was good."

He gave up two runs in the first inning in a game Seibu on May 10th, and one runs in the first inning in a game Rakuten on May 14th, giving up runs in two consecutive games, and was removed from the first-team roster the following day, May 15th.

Even after being demoted to the second team, he showed stable pitch, but he didn't get a call up to the first team. "It's not because I'm moving up or because I'm at the bottom, but I've been honing my skills to know what kind of pitches I throw are best and which ones I can use to closer the opponent down, so I think it's good that I was able to do that," he said, refusing to give up and continuing to swing his arm in the farm team.

hitter I think I can observe which pitches my opponents don't like by getting ahead of them strike and which courses they don't like to be thrown, so I watch the data on the hitters and work out what they want to hit catcher before pitching, and then watch the data to see how they want to hit the ball reliever, so I can observe the flow of the game. I think I am able to pitch with the flow of the game, observing that the pitcher is attacking this way today, so I pitch this way," he said.

In his time at the farm team, he also pitched in tiebreakers. "There were many situations where giving up a run put us at a disadvantage, so rather than having runner on base, even if there were runner on base, it was good to be able to advance runner, but as a reliever, I think the best thing is not to let them reach home plate, so I had the opportunity to pitch in tiebreakers several times and I think that's an area where I've grown."

He was promoted for the second time this season on September 5th. From the game Seibu on the 6th, he said, "I wasn't particularly worried about runner on base, I was just trying to throw my own pitch that day, so I think that was good," and runs three consecutive scoreless games up until the game against Rakuten on the 12th. However, he gave runs in two consecutive games against Rakuten on the 14th and 15th, and was removed from the first-team roster the following day on the 16th, and finished the season without being promoted to the first team.

In the farm closer and after being promoted, he has closer some games, but it's a vicious cycle of consecutive runs. Next season will be my fifth year as a pro, and I want to establish myself in the first team.

Interview and text by Yuta Iwashita