Kazuya Ojima of Lotte, who will start against Rakuten at 1:00 p.m., last pitched on the 7th against Seibu, throwing 112 pitches over 8 innings, allowing 9 hit, 2 strike out, 0 BB, and 2 runs to earn his 8th win.

For his last appearance, he changed bullpen from two days before his appearance to three days before. Regarding the reason for this, he explained, "I usually go two days before, but I've been thinking about going to bullpen three days before. I've occasionally pitched three days before since last year and the year before. How should I put it? I'm not the type of person who gets tired towards the end of the season, but I wanted to try something I did two or three years ago, so I wanted to be able to leave a little bit of time between pitching and the game, so I tried out something I did two or three years ago. I'm trying to incorporate it." This week, he also practiced in his uniform during pre-game practice against Softbank on the 11th, and headed toward the indoor bullpen, so it's believed he went to bullpen three days before.

In his last appearance, with two outs runner none in the 1-0 second inning, he effectively got two groundballs on Takayoshi Yamamura with one ball two strike and two groundballs on fastball the fourth pitch he threw from , an in-course 145 km , and with one out in the 3-0 third inning, he broke the bat on Manaya Nishikawa with two balls two strike and hit the fifth pitch, an in-course 145 km fastball, for a fly ball up the middle. "I used left-handed hitter the inside track.

"In the last game, I was hitting the inside left and the line quite a bit, so I had a really good image and felt like I could pitch whenever the sign was given, so I think it went well."

Speaking of Kojima, at the beginning of the 2023 season, he used to throw a pitcher as a way to counter left-handed hitter left-handed hitter pitching inside, but he stopped doing so because Avg increased. Is there a reason why he now throws fastball instead of a pitcher to left-handed batters pitching inside?

"Nothing in particular," he said, but revealed, "Yoshii-san told me for a while to just push the ball straight instead of shooting, and since then I've been throwing with the intention of jamming the ball."

With the score at 4-1 and one out and no runner on base in the sixth inning, he also delivered a good 137 km/ struck out fork, striking out Nevin with two balls and two strike.

Regarding fork, he said, "fork that Watanabe hit was a bit of a hook, so it's a pitch that can be missed, so I have to be careful against batters who have a chance of hitting it.I'll make sure to be very careful when pitching in the future," reflecting on the moment he was hit by a home run by Seiya Watanabe with two outs and no runner on base in the fourth inning with the score at 4-0.

In his last appearance, he was able to pitch to right-handed hitter and left-handed hitter, and to both inside and outside pitches.

"Basically, I think my strength is being able to throw a variety of pitches in a variety of directions, so I try not to limit my options just because I don't want them to be hit. I can throw fastballs, change-up, and pitches with varying speeds anytime, anywhere, and I'd like to be able to use a variety of pitches, including inside, outside, cutter, slider, and a combination of fork and change-up, and I'd like to be able to make use of all of those."

With his 4 consecutive wins, he won 8 wins in the season, and the number of innings pitched was 121 1/3 times, and he is starting to see reaching double digit win for 3 consecutive years and innings pitched for 5 consecutive years. I want you to throw a long inning even in one inning, show off a double-digit win, and pitch you are close to reaching the required innings pitched.

Interview and text by Yuta Iwashita