"I think it's a good thing that the results are coming out."

Lotte's Aito has been focusing on hitting long balls this season, and while he recorded a batting average of .336 in the farm team, the best in the Eastern League, he also showed solid results in terms of consistency, and was promoted for the first time this season on May 27th.

During the exhibition games, starting line-up said, "When I go for it head-on, it's about how well I can do it. If I can hit a long ball, that's great. I think I can hit the ball strong and improve my swing in practice and in games," and he hit home runs in both the match against DeNA on March 4 and Hiroshima on the 6th as Home Run.

He started the season with the farm team, but in April he played in 24 games with a batting average of .319 (22 out of 69) with one Home Run and 10 RBI, and in May he played in 15 games with a batting average of .356 (21 out of 59) with one Home Run and six RBI.

On April 12th, in a game against Seibu' second team, in the 8th inning with the score at 3-1 and runners on first and third, he was at bat for the 4th time, and on the first pitch thrown by Yoshinobu Mizukami, he hit a 2-run doble double to right-center field, and his hits to right-center field were very good. Is hitting to "right-center field" one of the indicators of good form?

"That's not true, but I'm the type of person who can hit in either direction. I try to be able to hit both ways, not just to the right or in the pull direction."

On April 6, in a 2-0 game against DeNA, with one out in the 5th inning against Yoto Shoji, he hit the second pitch from 1 ball to Yoto Shoji with a no-step batting strategy, carrying a 130 km slider in front of center fielder while jamming the ball. He also hit "no-step-like" pitches.

Regarding that, he told us, "It's something I do in practice. When it comes to a match, I have to be able to respond flexibly, so it's something I keep in my arsenal."

On April 5, with two outs and one out in the fifth inning of a 3-0 win over DeNA Nigun, Aito quickly handled a hit to left-center field by Takaki Dokai at second base center fielder Aito quickly handled the runner second base and didn't miss Ryunosuke Kuriihara, throw to second base and touched out on second base. He made an out before the runner runner second base, so he made a good play that didn't allow a run. On May 18, in the third inning of a game against the Yakult Second Army, 0-4, he showed his defense ability on the farm many times, such as catch or catch a difficult hit by Ruito Nishimura to right field with a bounce short stop bounce or a bounce to throw to second base, and a quick to second base for a force out.

"I haven't changed anything defense and I'm just doing what I've always done, so I think it's going well."

If he ran, he could touch up from first to second on a fly out behind left Koki Yamaguchi by with one out in the 0-0 second inning against DeNA on April 25, and he could touch up third stolen base on the second pitch from Katsuya Kakunaka 's 1 strike with one out in the 1-0 fifth inning against Rakuten the second team on May 23. The same day against Rakuten, with one out bases loaded in the 4-1 8th inning, he touched up from first to second on Seiichiro Oshita 's sacrifice fly to Wright and came back alive on Kazuki Fujita 's timely hit, which was also very "seamless base running".

"I thought I couldn't get promoted unless I showed results not only in batting but also in defense and base running. I think the only thing you can do with base running is to exploit the opponent's weaknesses, so rather than being an aggressive base running, I tried to base running in a way that exploited the opponent's weaknesses."

The stage of the first team has finally come. "I just do what I've been doing, that's all." He has been preparing for the first team since the off-season without neglecting it. All that's left is to show it in regular season.

Interview and text by Yuta Iwashita