◆ Pacific League Nippon-Ham 1-1 Yakult (22nd, ES CON FIELD)

Nippon-Ham Koki Kitayama pitcher mound hit runs strike out He was told that he was going to be replaced after throwing 66 pitches, which was close to 70 pitches, and he got off mound.

In the first inning, he allowed a hit but got through with no runs, but in the following 6th inning, he allowed Osuna to hit a timely hit to the right from 2nd and 1st and lost 1 run. In the 7th inning, he retired with 3 outs. In the 8th inning, he missed the lead Maruyama Kazu and was replaced when he slashed struck out.

He volunteered to mound the fourth inning. In the WBC, he was replaced after one inning in both of his previous appearances. Kitayama reflected, "I was able to pitch three inning and even make it to the fourth inning, so that was the biggest takeaway and the best part. I didn't make any major mistakes, but I ended up throwing a lot of pitches to the batters, so I think I need to improve the precision of each and every pitch."

The main issue he cited was the inconsistency in his fastball velocity. In the first inning, he recorded a top speed of 153 km/h, with his fastball exceeding 150 km/h. However, in the second inning, which spanned across inning, his speed was in the mid-to-late 140s km/h range, and he didn't throw any balls exceeding 150 km/h. "The only thing that was a bit unstable was the velocity of my fastball as I moved between inning, so I want to work on that," he said, indicating that he will make adjustments in the short time before the season starts.

Kitayama pitched in the first round of the WBC against Taiwan, allowing one hit no runs in one inning. In the game against the Czech Republic, he pitched in the ninth inning, striking out three consecutive struck out to close out the game. He did not pitch in the quarterfinal loss against Venezuela.