The "Nippon Seimei Central Pacific Baseball Tournament 2026" will begin on January 26. Each team will play a total of 18 games, three against each of the six teams in the league that do not normally play each other. Softbank Hawks The key players in the Ryosuke Otsu pitcher (27). The right-hander, who has won a team-leading four games this season, leads the team with the stability that has kept him the only one in the rotation since the start of the season.

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Otsu is expected to be the key pitcher in the team's quest for a second consecutive interleague championship. This season, he has made seven appearances, recording four wins and one loss with a stable ERA of 1.52. Moreover, he has recorded a quality start (QS = 6 innings or more with 3 or fewer earned runs) in every game. In his third year as a starting pitcher, he is racking up wins at a pace that will surpass his career high (7 wins) recorded in 2024.

In 2014, when he changed number from "26" to "19," he was ranked sixth among the starting rotation (six pitchers) at the start of the season. When the schedule included five games a week, manager Kokubo also commented, "(Otsu) is currently ranked sixth, so unless he moves up to fifth, he won't be able to pitch in five games." In this situation, Otsu has been improving his evaluation with each pitch, saying, "Everyone is my rival. I want to become a starting pitcher that can be entrusted with the Japan Series in the end. I want to pitch well until then."

Currently, he is the only pitcher who made the opening day rotation who has not been removed from the active roster. Having experienced the frustration of going back and forth between the first and second teams last season, his desire to pitch in the first team is stronger than anyone else's. In the game Orix Buffaloes on the 19th (Kyocera Dome Osaka), he was hit near his left shin by a batted ball, but he said, "There is a burden on reliever pitchers, and I can't just easily say 'I'm taking the game.' I wanted to pitch no matter what," and he is a passionate man who pitched all the way through to the 6th inning.

In the interleague games, he pitched in two games in total, with a record of 1 win and 1 loss. He started evenly matched with the Central League teams and then dominated them.

Ryosuke Otsu was born on January 13, 1999 in Shime, Fukuoka. 27 years old. He was benched in spring Koshien of his second year at Kyushu University Kyushu, but did not play. He was a classmate of Japan national soccer team defender Kenyo Tomiyasu (Ajax). After graduating from Teikyo University and Nippon Steel Kashima, he was Softbank Hawks drafted second overall in the 2010 draft. He has appeared in 77 games through last season, with 19 wins and 10 losses and 13 hold. His family includes a wife and a son. 175 cm, 67 kg. He throws right-handed and bats left-handed.

◆ Softbank Hawks 's interleague schedule

▽May 26-28 The Giants (Tokyo Dome)

▽29th-31st Hiroshima (Mizuho PayPay Dome)

▽June 2-4, Chunichi (Vantelin Dome)

▽5th-7th DeNA (Yokohama)

▽9th-11th Hanshin Tigers (Mizuho PayPay Dome)

▽12th-14th Yakult (Mizuho PayPay Dome)