"I realized his straight pitches were very strong, so I focused on using straight pitches, and as a result, I was able to closer."

Lotte's Yuto Yoshikawa calmly reflected on the game, but fastball in the minor league game against Orix Buffaloes on May 3rd was excellent.

When he took the mound in the 6th inning with a score of 0-0, he made it 3 balls 0 strike against Ryoma Yamanaka without a runner, but he took a miss on the 4th pitch with an outside angle of 147 km fastball and made it 3 balls 1 strike, and the following 5th pitch was also missed with a low 147 km fastball and strike 3 balls and 2 strike. In the end, he finished with an empty swing struck out with a fastball with an outside angle of 151 km.

Yoshikawa said, "The last pitch was a ball I was trying to get a swing and a miss, but the two pitches after the 3-ball, 1-strike were thrown with relatively less power, but even so I was able to put in close to my maximum power, so I think I'm doing well," indicating he was satisfied with fastball he threw.

In the 7th inning of the 2nd inning, he swung Yosuke Kubota from no runner with two outs and 2 strike with a fastball of 148 km on the in-course struck out On this day, he threw 28 pitches in 2 innings, allowing hit 0, 2 strike out, 1 BB, no runs, and 20 out of 28 pitches were fastball power pitching.

fastball, which finished off the mountains with a struck out, seems to have increased its speed and average by fastball, such as measuring 151 km/h. "I think it's improving, and I'm training to increase (speed), so I think that's a good trend."

When asked if the improvement in fastball strength was due to the fact that his efforts during the offseason, specifically focusing on "controlling his entire body and using his core and trunk to throw," were finally paying off, he replied, "Yes, I think that's about right."

While breaking ball is his main change-up, he barely threw it in his two appearances in the minor leagues. Perhaps he's relying less on change-up because he's able to overpower batters with fastball?

"Well, to put it simply, I was in good form the other day, but the theme was how to improve my fastball. When I'm in good form, I don't see the need to deliberately loosen my arm and throw change-up."

He indicated that this season he plans to replace slider he threw last season with a curveball, cutter with slider, and create a new cutter in addition. After the actual games began, he explained about these three pitches, "The speed of my cut fastball and slider has increased along with my fastball, so I think I can build my game around those three pitches to some extent, regardless of whether the batter is left-handed or right-handed. The curveball and change-up are slower balls, so I imagine I can use them when the batter is really timing it well and I'm trying to get a swing and a miss, so I think those three pitches will be the basic ones."

I wonder if they want cutter to be a pitch with a speed close to that of fastball.

"I think it's usable at that speed range (the 137 km cutter thrown to Yamanaka on the first pitch). If it curves a little, I think it will follow the same trajectory as a fastball and miss the sweet spot, so it would be great if I could get some swings and misses, but I'm not trying to make it exactly like a fastball. It's more like something in between a fastball and slider."

And when Kazuya Ojima was adjusting in the minor leagues, they would play catch together. "Rather than asking questions, I would just observe and try to figure out what he was like, or at least I would ask him about it, but for the most part I would imagine what he was like and interpret it myself. That's how it was," he revealed.

If he can consistently throw the kind of fastball he threw in Orix Buffaloes minor league game, he'll be within reach of the first team. "I just want to make an impression, so my goal is to get to the first team. I think the best thing to do is to make a good impression in every aspect." In The Marines, which have many promising young pitcher, Yoshikawa also has the potential to make a big leap forward.

Interview and text by Yuta Iwashita