Lotte's Ko Matsukawa entered his fourth professional season with a sense of crisis and determination, but this season he only played in six first-team games.

In his first year as a professional in 2022, he was the starting catcher for the opening game and played in 76 games without ever being sent down to starting line-up farm team, but from his second year onwards his playing time decreased to just nine games and then two games.

Looking ahead to this season, he said, "It's my fourth year, so I need to produce results to stay in the first team. Anyway, I want to do what I need to do well and keep in mind the importance of winning," and he took on the challenge with a strong resolve. During his voluntary training, he said, "Of course, it's important to improve my overall level, but I also think that my batting will be extremely important," and "My right knee goes forward, which makes me take a detour, so I'm trying to be conscious of that." During the spring training camp in Ishigaki Island, he swung the bat almost every day after the team practice with Aito, and was always the last to leave the stadium.

Regarding the time he spends swinging the bat after the whole team practice, Matsukawa said, "It's not just about form, but I just try to swing the bat as much as possible so that I can get into my own style," and swung the bat with single-minded concentration in order to create his own style.

In the external matches that began on February 16th, he hit hit hit in a practice match against DeNA on the 20th, an exhibition match against The Giants on the 24th, and a match against Korea Lotte on the 28th, and played in nine exhibition matches, but was unable to make the opening day of the season with the first team.

Since the start of the season, in a game against Yakult second team on May 4th, with the score at 10-3 and one out and a runner on first in the ninth inning, he was down to two pitches against Hoshi Tomoya, but he judged the ball well and, with three balls and two strike, let go of the sixth pitch, a 143 km/h fork, drawing a Walk his first at-bat in the second inning against Nippon-Ham Fighters' second team on July 8th, with the score at 0-3 and two outs and runners on first and third, he hit the first fastball thrown by Yi-Lei Sun, to left field for a three-run home run, his first of the season.

In July, he achieved results in his batting, which was an area of weakness, with a batting average of .333 (9 hits At Bat 27 hit), 1 Home Run, and 4 RBI.

In August, he hit a 136 km cutter pitch, the fourth pitch that Toshihiro Sugiura threw from 1 ball 2 strike, in front of the right walk-off of the second batter bases loaded with one out in the 10th inning of a 1-1 game against Nippon-Ham Nigun on August 5. On August 22, he pitched sacrifice bunt the first batter, Hit by Pitch the second batter, sacrifice bunt the third batter, Walk the fourth batter and 0 At Bat 0 hit 1 4 Hit by Pitch 2 sacrifice bunt. On August 24, he played in the middle of the game against DeNA. On August 24, he played in a game against DeNA and had 2 hit at bats, all of which were to left field hit.

Since July, he has been hitting more hit with the pull, and when asked why, he explained, "I think my challenge is to be able to hit back fastballs properly, so I try not to let them get in there.I've been trying to make sure I can hit fastballs at my own pace at any time."

"There are only a few games left, but I want to do my best to do what I have to do and make sure I can contribute to the team. I think winning is very important, so first of all I want to do my best in the game in front of me and prepare so that when I play I can perform to the best of my ability." He was promoted for the first time this season on September 4th.

While Matsukawa was playing for the farm team, Ryusei Terachi, who is two years younger than him, emerged as catcher could hit. "He's also my rival, so I try not to worry too much about it and just do my best in what I have to do. I think it's a big thing for the team, and there's only one position left, so I hope I can produce good results even though there are only a few games left."

He played in six games for the first team, starting in two games, but was unable to starting line-up the team to win. He also had zero At Bat in eight at hit. Next season will be his fifth year as a pro, and players from his year who graduated from college will be joining the pros. With Saburo taking over as manager next season, he wants to seize the opportunity and make this a year in which he can make his presence felt as catcher.

Interview and text by Yuta Iwashita