"I switched to splitter. I also made my grip shallower."

Lotte's Keisuke Sawada had been practicing since last fall to develop a fast, dropping fork, but he has decided to switch to a split-finger splitter with a shallower grip for this season.

In an interview on March 3rd, Sawada commented on fork, saying, "fastball is a little slow right now, so it's slowing down because of that," indicating that he hadn't been able to throw it at a speed he was satisfied with since the start of actual games. In the game Orix Buffaloes on March 10th, in the 8th inning with one out and no runner on base, he threw two strike to Ryo Ota, the third pitch (137 km/ fork) and the fourth pitch (138 km/h fork), both of which were balls, but he was still throwing fork that were close to 140 km/h. The pitches he threw to Ota on the third and fourth pitches were actually splitter with a shallower grip.

In the game Seibu Lions on March 13th, with the score 1-2 in the 7th inning with one out and a runner on first base, he threw a 135 km/h splitter to Kazunari Ishii struck out the second pitch after one strike, getting him to swing and miss, and then struck him out swinging with a 134 km/ splitter on the third pitch. He himself praised splitter he threw to Ishii, saying, "It was great." It dropped slightly outside like sinker, so perhaps he is consciously trying to make it drop like sinker.

He said, "I wasn't aiming for it, but it ended up being a bit of sinker."

When asked if splitter 's ideal trajectory is similar to sinker, he revealed, "Ideally, it would drop vertically, but that one isn't bad either."

In previous interviews, Sawada has said, "I'm good change-up, but I'm not good at fork." In 2023, he studied by watching YouTube videos of Kenta Maeda (Rakuten Eagles) and Trevor Bauer and threw a "splitter changeup," and in 2024, he learned how to throw splitter from his then-teammate, Takahiro Nishimura.

When asked why he thought splitter was better this time, he explained, "It's the speed." Indeed, he had been practicing since the offseason to develop a fast, dropping fork. "It's a pitch that's similar to change-up, so it has to be fast to be distinguishable as a dropping ball that's different from change-up. If it's a slow breaking ball, it'll just be lumped together with change-up. It's about increasing the speed and creating movement."

Does the speed vary depending on the season and the feel in his fingers? Last year, he aimed for fork fork the 130 km/h range, but sometimes it ended up in the 120 km/h range. "I don't think that will happen again. I feel like I can get good speed with this grip," he said confidently.

Having practiced fork since last fall, switching to splitter right before the season starts seems like a daring move.

"I practiced splitter a lot in the fall. I had Johnny (pitcher coach Tomohiro Kuroki) look at splitter, and I thought I had perfected it, but when I checked the TrackMan pitching machine in bullpen, splitter I threw in the game against Seibu Lions on the 13th wasn't showing up as dropping."

bullpen In February, I asked Mima-san (the second team pitcher coach) to teach me how to throw a fork pitch, which is a little deeper, because he is good at fork pitching. When you think about it versus the hitter, it's the stage of opening the season, so you shouldn't throw the kind of pitches that can cause big injuries (to hitters). I am a reliever. When that happened, I chose breaking ball to be fast splitter because I didn't want to have to fall off against Seibu Lions on the 13th. It's not that I haven't practiced. I practiced both splitter and fork in the fall as well."

He had been practicing since last fall to be able to throw either fork or splitter. "I don't want to give up big extra-base hits, so I chose the option that minimizes that risk," he said, explaining why he switched from fork to splitter at this time.

Last season I was able to use the slider I had been practicing on my game ball, which widened the range of pitch. splitter If the pitch is good, the range of will be further expanded.

"I feel like I'm finally able to compete with breaking ball, so while change-up is my best breaking ball, slider and splitter are getting close to it. I feel more confident now, with three breaking ball breaking ball I can throw with confidence." Armed with splitter as a new weapon, he's ready to strike out hitter.

Interview and text by Yuta Iwashita