"This was the season I spent the most time in the first team, and I think I've grown a lot compared to the past three years."

Lotte's Raito Ikeda, in his fourth year as a professional, played in a career-high 83 games this season, and his batting average of .238, Home Run (5), and RBI (20) were all career highs.

During his voluntary training in January for this season, he was enthusiastic, saying, "I want to first produce results in batting so that if a position becomes available, I can immediately step in." He trained hard with the Miyakonojo team during spring training, and joined the first-team training camp on February 18th, during the Okinawa expedition. He played in 10 training and exhibition games in February and March, but was unable to make an impression, with a batting average of .125 (16-2). His last appearance in a first-team external game was a training game against Lotte Marines Korea on March 1st, and he spent his time in the farm team with the sole focus being on playing in the first team.

He played in 25 farm games with a batting average of .289, Home Run, 10 RBI, and an on-base percentage of .373, and was promoted to the first team on April 25. In the game Orix on April 29, in his third at-bat with one out and a runner on first base in the seventh inning with the score at 0-1, he said, "I tried my best to hit it. I'm glad it was a timely hit." He hit doble down the left field line on the second fork thrown by Hiroya Miyagi after a 1-ball start, for his first hit of the season.

On the following day, the 30th, he started on the bench, but came in as a pinch hitter in the ninth inning with one out and no runner on base and the score at 0-5. He hit fastball on the outside corner of Daiki Tajima to right field, saying, "I was able to get in on the ball well, so I think that was good." He was also pleased with the hit.

Ikeda's strength is his aggressive swing from the first pitch, but he also responded well even when down to two strike. In the May 22nd game against Orix, with the score at 1-0, in his third at-bat in the sixth inning with two outs and runners on first and second, he said, "count was 3-2, so I just focused on swinging compactly and powerfully. I'm glad I was able to hit it." He hit his first three-run home run on a 145 km/ fastball on the seventh pitch thrown by Daiki Tajima with three balls and two strike. Then, in his fourth at-bat in the seventh inning with the score at 6-0 and two outs and a runner on first, he hit splitter on the sixth pitch thrown by Soichiro Yamazaki with two balls and two strike, sending it into the left-field stands for his second two-run home run. It was great that he hit both Home Run after being down to two strike. Ikeda himself reflected, "I thought the same thing myself."

"It's always been the case that I've been able to do things in the farm team but not in the first team, but this year I've been able to do what I've been doing in the farm team in the first team as well, like hanging in there and hitting home runs after being down to two strike, which hasn't been the case in previous years so I think that's a good thing."

◆ line drive drive

Ikeda's batting this season has seen a large number of line drive drives. "I'm conscious of that. I try not to swing too high during batting practice, and I try to imagine that I'm crushing the ball."

When asked why he decided to try hitting line drive, he said, "Personally, I don't hit balls that go up in the air, so I feel like line drive make the ball fly, and in games those types of balls have become hits. So I'm going to keep that in mind." He also said that he thought line drive that hit straight to outfield were "good" for an out.

When asked about the ideal hit when hitting line drive, he explained, "In my mind, I imagine it going straight as home run, or going over outfield 's head, or down the left field line."

During the game against Hiroshima on June 12th, he said, "It won't fly unless it's at that angle, so if it goes any higher than that the chances of it being a hit are low, so I think a strong grounder would be fine. In terms of probability, most of the hits are line drive, so I think that's fine." In his first at-bat in the first inning with the score tied 0-0 and two runner and no Home Run on strike, Aduwa Makoto hit line drive drive home run that went into the left-field stands.

During the interleague games, starting line-up often started as the third batting order, and said, "I think I'm determined to keep hitting every day, and I'm doing the same drills and making the same adjustments every time I take to the plate." He hit in 10 consecutive games from the game against Nippon-Ham on June 1st to the game against Yakult on June 13th.

After the exchange games, the hitting of Neftalí Soto, which had been a regular first baseman player until then, recovered, and the opportunities to play in starting line-up decreased, but "I think that if I don't produce results when I appear in starting line-up, there will be no next time, and I think my position will change unless I produce more and more results, so I'm trying to produce some results when I appear in starting line-up. Orix hit RBI When I appear in starting line-up, I try to get some results."

In the game against Nippon-Ham on July 8th, with the score at 0-2 and two outs and no runner on base, in his first at-bat in the second inning, Koki Kitayama said, "I haven't been able to pull the ball much lately, so I decided to pull it as hard as I could and went for a straight shot," and the moment he hit the second cutter thrown by Kitayama Wataru after a ball, Home Run flew into the left-field stands for line drive drive home run. It was the kind of line drive Home Run Ikeda aspires to, but he reflected, "I aspire to it. My next at-bats were terrible, so I think it was just a coincidence."

In the game Orix on August 11th, in his fourth at-bat in the ninth inning with the score tied at 2-3 and no runner on base, Machado threw a 157 km/ fastball on the third pitch after two strike. doble hit the left wall fence for line drive-like double, which looked like the kind of line drive-like hit Ikeda has been aiming for this season.

Ikeda himself explained, "It was good. In that at-bat, I swung too late at the second pitch and missed, but I was able to correct that, so that was good."

During batting practice before the game, he approaches the batting pitcher and stands further forward than the batter's box to hit the ball, but perhaps this is a way to prepare for hitting a `` line drive like'' ball.

"I often can't hit the ball against pitcher, so by standing in front of him I can hit the ball without thinking about anything else, so I do this as a way to make myself more conscious of the situation."

He also has days when he hops around on one leg while hitting the ball, and says, "Every day is different." He decides on his own batting theme for each day and practices batting to prepare for the game.

Despite his meticulous preparations, he also made mistakes. In the August 17th game against Softbank, where starting line-up started as the third batter and second baseman, with the score tied at 0-0 in the sixth inning and a runner on first base, he attempted a sacrifice bunt against Moinelo on the first pitch, but failed to defense, and was replaced in the next inning. During pre-game practice at Zozo Marine Stadium, he was seen diligently practicing bunting against a bunt machine, and this was a mistake that occurred despite his daily preparations.

Ikeda looked ahead and said, "I don't think we can win even games we could have won unless we can make the shots in evenly matched situations with pitcher like Moinelo. We practice every day, but it's meaningless unless we succeed in one game. We'll keep working hard to be successful."

On September 11th against Softbank Hawks, with the score at 8-1 and no runner on base, in his third at-bat against Taiga Kamichatani, he was down two pitches, but he was able to discern which balls were balls and chose to pitch. With a 3-2 count, he let a 143 km/h cutter on the outside corner on the seventh pitch strike, drawing Walk. On September 21st against Nippon-Ham Fighters, with the score at 0-5, in his second at-bat in the fourth inning with two outs and runners on first and second, he went for a 147 km/ fastball on the fourth pitch thrown by Ren Fukushima on a 3-0 strike, fouling it out. Then, with a 3-2 strike, he hit a timely single down the right-field line on cutter on the seventh pitch. He played in 17 games in September, recovering with a .286 batting average and ultimately finishing the season with a .238 batting average.

"Every year my performance fluctuates greatly, and when it drops I can't get back up to par, so this year my performance has been smaller than usual, which is why I think I've been able to stay in the first team," he said, summarizing this season.

He had 249 at-bats this season, but in order to reach the required 443 at-bats next season, he said, "I need to improve my OPS." His OPS this season is .634. "I'm trying to hit doble, but in order to get to bat, I have to play in games, and unless I can increase my on-base percentage by Walk and Hit by Pitch pitches, I won't be able to play in games," he said.

"I think it's not just about defense, but batting alone won't get me 443 at-bats, so I want to contribute in terms of defense and base running as well." Next year will be important in order to make use of the experience he gained this season.

Interview and text by Yuta Iwashita