Lotte's Yuji Nishino recorded eight wins in 2011 when he returned to starting pitching, and last season he tied his career high with nine wins. This season he set his sights on his first double-digit win total, but he was sidelined due to injury, and he ended up pitching nine games and 49 2/3 innings with a record of 0 wins and 4 losses and ERA of 3.08, leaving him 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, he had repeatedly mentioned in interviews before the interleague games last season that fastball was an issue, but in an interview before the start of the season, he said, ``I think it's going pretty well this year,'' and began the season feeling confident.

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 has regained his strong fastball by training independently this season, just like he did in 2011. I wonder if he will continue to train hard this offseason just like he did this season in 2011.

"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 current level of baseball, the level of baseball in Japan, is improving, so in order to keep up with that, I want to increase the volume of my playing compared to last year. Also, I had an injury, so I need to take care of that as well. I think the volume of my playing in that area will increase as well," he said, showing his intention to train himself thoroughly.

Manabu Mima who was the oldest pitcher on the team until this season, has retired, and Ayumu Ishikawa and Hirokazu Sawamura have left to continue playing. Currently, the oldest pitcher on the team are Yuki Karakawa and Naoya Masuda Masuda, both from the "89 generation," followed by Nishino. With the number of young pitcher on the team increasing, I hope they can show the determination of the "90 generation" and show what they can still do.

Interview and text by Yuta Iwashita