"(The four games so far) haven't been talked about much, but I think I need to face myself and do my best."

Kazuya Ojima of Lotte is not satisfied with his pitch in the four games he has pitched this season. Looking at the numbers alone, he has pitched 24 inning in four games, with one win and two losses, but ERA 2.63 seems to be a decent performance, even though he has more losses than wins.

Compared to last season, from the start of this season until the game Rakuten on April 20, Kojima hardly threw cutter, one of the pitches that supports his pitch. Also, in the game against Rakuten on April 5, he threw change-up, which he hadn't thrown much, in a 0-0 score in the 8th inning with two outs and a runner on second base to Yukiya Ito with 3 balls and 2 strike, striking him out struck out. It appears that he is changing his pitching style, perhaps with an eye on the long season.

When we asked Kojima himself about this, he prefaced his answer by saying, "That's not the case," but then explained, "I think that every year I prepare for it, and that the opponents have done so, so up until now I haven't had to use this ball, but since the last game I've also started using cutter, and the batter's aims change every game, so I think it's important to adapt to that."

So far, right-handed hitter 's Avg has been hitting .283 (60-17), but on March 28 against Softbank, with two outs in the third inning of an 0-1 win Tomoya Masaki, he struck out Richard on two balls and 2 slider strike strike with one out in the fourth inning of an 0-1 game on March 28. The right-handed hitter in-course cutter slider slider is good, including the fifth pitch he threw to struck out on the in-course, the third pitch he threw to Murabayashi at 1-ball, 1-strike with one out in the fourth inning of an 0-2 win over Rakuten on April 20, and the 134-kilogram cutter on the in-course that he missed.

I wonder how Kojima feels about pitch to right-handed hitter.

"It depends on the batter, but recently we've seen a lot of single hit being hit in the opposite direction rather than long hits. The Nippon Ham batting line-up is capable of hitting home runs, and there are a lot of batters who can do that kind of batting, so I hope I can quickly read the intentions of the batter at bat in that day's game and put up a good fight against him."

What is worrisome is that the speed of fastball is not that great. In his last appearance on April 20 Rakuten, from the first inning, many of his fastballs were in the low 140 km/h fastball. "I can't say it's good, but I feel like I'm getting better day by day, and since I'm not throwing very fastballs, I think it's important to throw with a good balance rather than trying to throw too fast. I think it's also important not to rush while thinking carefully about the causes and trying to overcome the issues."

Kojima will start the match against Nippon-Ham at 2 p.m. "I haven't been able to throw a lot of long inning, so I want to throw a lot of long innings, and I don't want to talk about it because I was replaced in the fifth inning two games ago, so I think I'm going to be aware of that because I'm pitching once a week." I'd like to see a pitch that throws 1 inning long and brings in the team's win.

Interview and text by Yuta Iwashita