Lotte's Yuji Nishino recorded 8 wins in 2023 when he returned to the starting rotation, and last season he tied his personal best with 9 wins. This season he aimed for his first double-digit win, but due to injuries he was sidelined for a period, and ended up with 0 wins and 4 losses ERA win.

Regarding the off-season leading up to the 2025 season, he said, "Looking at it from a sensory perspective, I wasn't in good shape last year, but the year before that was really good, so I thought I'd spend my time in a similar way to how I spent the pre-season two years ago." He reviewed how he spent his voluntary training period and put in hard practice.

As a result, last season, he repeatedly mentioned in interviews before the interleague games that fastball was an area he needed to work on, but in an interview before the season started, he said, "I think it's coming along pretty well this year," showing he had gained confidence as the season began.

In his first appearance of the season on April 2nd against Orix Buffaloes, runs one run in six innings. He also gave up two runs in six innings against Seibu Lions on April 9th, a six-day break away from the starting lineup, achieving two consecutive QS (six innings or more with three earned runs less) but suffering his first loss of the season. In addition to not working well with the batting lineup, he was also diagnosed with a "muscle injury in the right forearm flexor group" by the team on June 13th and was sidelined. He returned to the first team on August 17th against Softbank Hawks, throwing 69 pitches over five innings, closer two hit and no runs, but the game was still in a draw. Ultimately, this was his final appearance mound for the first team this season.

He regained his strong fastball by training independently in the same way he did in 2023 for this season. Will he impose the same rigorous independent training regimen on himself this offseason as he did in 2023 and this season?

"Yes, I'm planning to work quite hard," he said firmly. "To be honest, I don't know at what point my muscle strength and output will start to decline. I definitely don't want to lose that, and I think I need to work with the intention of improving it. However, I think I will decline as I get older, so I need to make up for that by improving both the quantity and the quality."

"I think the level of baseball in Japan is rising, so in order to keep up, I want to increase the volume of my training compared to last year. Also baseball I've had injuries, so I need to take care of that as well. I think the volume of my training will increase in that area too," he said, showing his determination to thoroughly train himself.

Manabu Mima who was the oldest pitcher on the team until this season, has retired, and Ayumu Ishikawa and Hirokazu Sawamura have left the team to pursue careers. Currently, the oldest pitcher on the team are Yuki Karakawa and Naoya Masuda Masuda, both from the "1989 generation," followed by Nishino. With more young pitcher joining the team, we hope the "1990 generation" will show their determination and prove that they still have a lot to offer.

Interview and text by Yuta Iwashita