As of the end of last season, Lotte's Kazuya Ojima had reached the required number innings pitched for five consecutive years.

If you look for pitcher in NPB who have reached the required innings pitched five consecutive years, there are only two: Kojima and Hiromi Ito (Nippon-Ham). Takayuki Kato (Nippon-Ham), who reached the required innings pitched for four consecutive years until 2024, pitched 119 innings last season, Togo Shosei (The Giants) pitched 111 innings last season, and Ogasawara Shinnosuke, who played for Chunichi until 2024, has moved to the major leagues to continue his career. This shows how difficult it is to "continue" to perform well and how difficult it is to keep pitching.

Regarding reaching the required number innings pitched for the fifth consecutive year, Kojima said he was not satisfied, stating, "I dropped out midway through, and I didn't have any good games, so it was a somewhat frustrating season."

In 21, when he reached the regulation innings pitched for the first time, he was one of the young players with high expectations, but now he has grown to an ace. "Reaching the innings pitched of the regulations" is also the story of Kojima's growth. In an interview in July 21, he pitcher said, "I can't earn inning if I don't throw 7 or 8 times per game stably inning I can't earn it. What's more, since I throw on Tuesday and Wednesday at the beginning of the week, I think I can throw reliever in the second half or without worrying if I throw inning as long as possible and don't use reliever in my game, so when I throw at the beginning of the week, I want to think about inning more carefully than usual and throw long innings first." Even if I put the same long inning into words, after 23, I often talk about the "team axis" rather than the "self-axis".

In an interview in November 2023, he expressed his sense of responsibility, saying, "I think it's important to pitch inning. Winning is the best, but even if we lose, I think about being able to get through a long number of inning, especially at the beginning of the week. If the opponent is clearly an ace, we can't win every week in a row, so we might get a loss, but I think it's more important to pitch a long number of inning in that situation."

As he gets older, his words convey a growing sense of self-awareness. This is partly because, in his younger days, Ayumu Ishikawa and Manabu Mima, who were the core of the starting rotation at the time, would pitch long inning, giving the relief pitchers a rest. "Back then, Mima and others would pitch eight innings, and I would pitch five or six innings, barely managing to get the win. Now that I'm in the opposite position, I hope I can carry on that spirit and contribute to the team in any way I can," he revealed when asked about his memories of Mima after Mima announced his retirement.

He is also resistant to breakdowns, and he only left last season due to acute back pain, and has not had a single major breakdown in the past five years. In order to continue pitching in the starting rotation, not only is it resistant to breakdowns, but if you don't continue to produce results, you won't be able to make it to the starting mound once a week. It's great that you've been doing it for five years. "I think it's natural to throw for one year, and 12 wins is a career high for me, so I want to exceed that number. This season, he threw the required innings pitched and is expected to achieve double-digit win for the first time in two years.

▼ Kazuya Ojima 's innings innings pitched by year

* Indicates reaching the required innings pitched

19 years: 54 1/3

20 years: 113 1/3

21 years: 146 *

22 years: 143 1/3 *

23 years: 158 1/3 *

24 years: 163 1/3 *

25 years: 145 *

Interview and text by Yuta Iwashita