"I'm not feeling bad. I have a feeling fastball will improve a bit more, so I hope to maintain this condition and increase fastball speed even further."

Lotte's Tokito Kawamura has pitched in two farm team games since his April 10th game Seibu Lions, where he allowed only one runs over six innings. In both games, he pitched six innings, allowing two runs against Yakult 's farm team and no runs against Softbank Hawks, demonstrating consistent pitch.

In his first appearance and first start of the season, on April 10, against Seibu Lions, he struck out on the third pitch he threw from 2 balls to Masayuki Kuwahara with one out in the 0-0 first inning runner without a groundout fastball foul, on the second pitch he threw from 1 ball to Junichiro Kishi with two outs in the 0-0 first inning runner without a groundout fastball foul, and on the fourth pitch from 2 balls to strike with an in-course 137 km foul. He struck out on an in-course 137 km fastball on the fourth pitch right-handed hitter from 2 balls to 1 .

When asked if the pitch he was throwing inside to right-handed hitter was a sinker, he revealed, "Strictly speaking, it's fastball, but I've been practicing sinkers."

In the game against Seibu Lions, he threw a lot of inside fastball to right-handed hitter in the first inning. I wonder if that's something he's particular about.

"Hmm, well," he said after thinking for a moment, then explained, "I've always thrown them, but compared to left-handed batters, there are fewer variations when facing right-handed batters. With lefties, you can use cutter and other pitches on the inside corner, but right-handed batters don't have those kinds of pitches. So, if I don't throw inside pitches properly, the variety of pitches I can throw will be limited, so I try to throw them."

On this day, there were times when he was made aware of the inside pitch, and he was able to hit it with the outside pitch. I think it's important to make fastball look fast, because if you don't use the inside pitch, you don't have the velocity, depending on the tendency of the opposing hitter. By using it, I think breaking ball will also become more effective."

His last appearance on that day was in the farm, but his energy conservation pitch stands out, with six innings and 61 pitches in a Yakult two-gun game on April 17 and six innings and 67 pitches in a Softbank Hawks two-gun game on April 28.

"Ideally, I'd like to pitch with that number of pitches, which means fewer struck out, but I think having a low pitch count is ideal."

This season, he's been closer batters off balance by throwing both fastball and breaking ball effectively. "I'm particular about fastball, but breaking ball are there to fastball. I think it's good to have more pitches to use to get outs, so I'm consciously working on that."

He said he wanted to improve the accuracy fork during the spring training camp in Miyakonojo, and he felt confident about it, saying, "It's very stable now. It's much better."

Kawamura has continued to deliver consistent pitch in the minor leagues even after being removed from the first-team roster. He will continue to prepare so that he is ready whenever the opportunity to start for the first team arises.

Interview and text by Yuta Iwashita