Lotte's Akira Yagi made a career-high 27 appearances this season, recording five hold, but ERA was 5.96. While he had many runs appearances, he also had many appearances where he gave up a large number of runs in a single game, which was a real shame.

In preparation for 2025, he worked on improving his physical strength during the off-season by doing personal training, "including running, core training, and weight training, increasing the overall load."

When asked why, he explained, "I had the opportunity to start in the farm team last year, and I thought that if I had another opportunity to start, I needed to build up more stamina, so that was one reason. I pushed myself really hard in November and December."

In terms of technique, during his voluntary training last season he focused on using his core and rib cage while pitching, but midway through last season he switched to two seam fastball mainly two-seam pitch, and he said, "I often threw to different locations, and towards the end I would throw to the middle and get hit, so I've been practicing being able to get pitcher to hit the ball.

"I'm in a position where I have to do this now. I want to make an impression from day one and aim to be on the opening day first team," he said with a sense of urgency as he entered the spring training camp in Ishigaki Island. At the live BP on February 9th, he threw 20 pitches, closer the number of hit balls to 0, but threw 10 balls.

Regarding two seam fastball, "It's become bolder than last year, and I think I went a little too aggressive, but I want to be conscious of finer control. The line wasn't coming out at all, so I want to be able to get it into the zone a little more. It was a little off." He also mentioned issues with his other pitches, saying, "It feels like it's a little to the side, so I think I need to fix that as well."

In his first game of the season against Rakuten Eagles Monkeys on February 16th, he said, "I felt like I was pitching with a relaxed attitude, so I'd like to continue doing that," throwing 14 pitches in the first inning, allowing no hit, strike out 2, and allowing no runs, getting off to a great start.

"If I continue to throw my two-seam two seam fastball with a good line within the zone, I think I'll see an increase in groundouts, so I'd like to increase that percentage and make an impression," he said enthusiastically. closer the score at runs for three innings in an exhibition game against The Giants on February 24, but gave up three runs in two innings in a practice game against Softbank on March 2, and two runs in three innings in an exhibition game against Softbank on March 8, showing no signs of slowing.

He closer went one inning without runs in an opening game against Hiroshima on March 16, but started the season with the second team. He said, "I wasn't getting any output at all, and even when I threw inside the zone, I was getting good pitches to outfield and they just happened to fly in front of me. I didn't have much control either. I got a point, but it just so happened that I was being closer hit by the ball," he recalled.

Watching farm footage since the season started, I noticed that he started throwing fastball again, and in a March 30 game against Yakult, he was very good on his fourth pitch, a 154 km outside pitch fastball that he missed from 1 ball 2 strike to struck out with two outs in the 1-0 8th inning against Sohma Uchiyama.

Why did he start throwing two seam fastball again after learning fastball in an interview last August 20 because "my front straight is not scary, or strong but not scary," and why did he start throwing again while he said last fall, "I have no plans to throw (fastball) at the moment"?

In an interview on April 4th, just after the start of the season, he revealed, "I was throwing too many two-two seam fastball, which caused my body to open up a bit, so I was throwing the fastball to bring it back to normal. I thought the two-seam two seam fastball was necessary because I have a strong fastball, so I started by throwing the fastball."

I wonder if it's the idea that the body has opened up due to the evils of polishing two seam fastball and that it would be better to throw fastball- I'm not sure.

Yes, that's true. That's one thing, and I thought to myself that there are harmful effects, or side effects, or something. If I can make my straight line stronger, I can throw two seam fastball more. I think I need to throw more fastball in practice and be creative.

Since the Seibu Lions match against the second team on April 11th, he threw 7 inning in 4 games, runs and ERA 0.00, and was promoted to the first team on April 30th. When he made his first appearance of the season in the Orix Buffaloes game on the same day, he threw 1 inning and 12 pitches, allowing hit 1 hit, 2 strike out, and no runs.

closer his first appearance on the mound, he has kept the score at runs for four consecutive games, and he is pleased with his performance, saying, "Both (fastball and two seam fastball) feel really good, and because I don't open up (my body), both have good power, and the straight feels good too. I feel like I can get in front of the batters now." He also expressed his intention to further improve the accuracy of his forkball, his fork, saying, "There are many times when I crush it a little, and there are still some balls that I'm not quite satisfied with. When it's good, it's good, but in terms of completion, it's only so-so. I'd like to improve it even more."

In the first runs game Rakuten Eagles on May 18, he took the mound after starter Sammons in the 6th inning with two outs and second base in the 6th inning of 4-0, and hit Komori with a ground ball to get out of a pinch, but he was inning 2 runs in the second inning of the second inning.

I imagine it must have been difficult for him to continue inning across innings after closer a pinch.

"I usually pitch two long inning, and rather than feeling tired, I got two outs and then Asamura hit fork in a soft spot, so I was throwing good balls up until I got them into a tight spot, but I realized I needed to improve my accuracy after that."

In the Orix Buffaloes game on May 21, he took the mound in the 6th inning with two outs and second base in a 1-3 game after starting Yuji Nishino, and finished off Kenya Wakatsuki with a fly to right. In the Hiroshima game on June 11th, he took the mound with two outs and bases loaded in the 6th inning of 1-1 after starter Nishino, and hit Ryosuke Kikuchi with a catcher. At this time, the number of appearances in the middle of inning was increasing, but he said, "I just go towards it so that I don't pull back, so I'm throwing with that feeling," and went up to mound thinking about heading towards the opponent's hitter.

It is true that his pitching was quite extreme, with some appearances where he closer a clean inning, such as against Yakult on June 13th, DeNA on June 20th, and Softbank Hawks on June 28th, while others, such as against DeNA on June 22nd, allowed pitch runs.

"In the game against DeNA on the 22nd, we were hitting the ball hard in a situation where we absolutely couldn't let the leadoff batter get on base in a slugfest. The leadoff hitter is important. In the games where we were hitting the ball, it felt like the leadoff batter was on base, so I was pitching in weak spots where the opponent couldn't hit a long ball, so I think I need to keep that in mind when pitching," he reflected.

Rakuten Eagles Orix Buffaloes runs Softbank Hawks runs closer Yagi was promoted again on August 20 after being removed from the first-team roster on July 2. He was promoted for the third time on September 16 and finished the season closer without pitching in five games runs.

Since closer the opponent down in many of his appearances, he would like to reduce the number of games in which he gives up a large number of runs next season.

Interview and text by Yuta Iwashita