"I haven't made any particular changes. I have made some fine adjustments to my form, but I think right now I'm at the stage of improving the accuracy of my ball in preparation for the game."

Lotte's Yuji Nishino is steadily preparing for the new season.

Nishino won eight games in 2011 when he returned to being a starter, and tied his career high with nine wins last season. During the offseason leading up to the 2024 season, he reviewed his "pitching form," including creating a pitching form that would ease the burden on his shoulders, but what was the theme of his offseason?

"Just speaking intuitively, I wasn't in good form last year but the year before that was really good, so I felt like I wanted to spend my time in a similar way to the pre-season I did the year before last."

The spring training camp in February was held in Miyakonojo for the first time this year. "It was really cold, but (at the spring training camp in Ishigaki Island) you go to a place where your body doesn't move very much, so in that sense I think I was able to get into the exhibition games smoothly," he said. Although it was colder than Ishigaki Island, it didn't seem to be a problem at all in terms of preparing for the season.

◆ pitch surface

In terms of pitch, he had mentioned many times in interviews before the interleague games last season that fastball was an issue, but he felt confident about fastball, saying, "I think it's coming along pretty well this year."

He barely threw fork, his weapon, in the exhibition game against Hiroshima on March 6. "I'm not feeling well, but I'm still practicing. I'm trying to change my grip and get a good drop, and I'm currently practicing that," he revealed.

slider had a 0-0 first inning with one out in the first inning of the opening game against Hiroshima, had a runner on a 1-ball 1-strike with a 129-kilometer slider on the third pitch of the 1-struck out game. I wonder if he is going to throw a slider that falls vertically this season.

"In terms of purposes, I use slider that I want to throw into the zone and slider that I want to curve widely to the side to get count- they're not two different pitches, but I use them according to my own intentions," he said.

He didn't pitch it in actual games last season, but it's interesting to see whether he'll use cutter he practiced this season. In a practice game against Seibu on February 27th, with the score at 0-1 and two outs and a runner on third base in the first inning, the pitch that struck out Manaya Nishikawa with a fly ball to left field looked like cutter, but when asked about it, he said, "No, it's not. It's making the quality of my fastball worse, so I think I'll stop using cutter for now."

Nishino is expected to be a part of the starting rotation this season as well. "I just want to pitch. I want to surpass my numbers from the past two years, and I just want to pitch as many inning as possible." Naturally, he also wants to pitch with six days between innings. "I want to pitch (with six days between innings). I say this every year, but there are various things to consider, so I can't do anything about it, but I want to pitch as many inning as I can."

This is his 17th season as a pro, and he turned 34 on the 6th, so he is now an old veteran, but his ambition and hunger remain the same as when he was younger. This season, he will not lose to the younger players, and will pitch as a part of the starting rotation.

Interview and text by Yuta Iwashita