Lotte's Koshiro Hiroike is steadily overcoming his weaknesses one by one, increasing his presence as starter.

He started the season as a reliever, but he made an impact as a long reliever and made his first start on April 12 against Seibu Lions. In that game, he pitched 7 innings and 93 pitches, closer only one hit and no runs. In his fifth start on May 17 against Orix Buffaloes, he pitched 7 innings and 105 pitches, hit 7 hits and 1 runs, and earned his first win as a starter.

Hiroike said, "When fastball is good, it's consistently in the high 40s, but it's inconsistent, and on bad days, it drops below 45, so I want to eliminate that speed difference," and "When I have a bad start, it carries over, and I can't pitch in good form." He spoke of his challenges.

fastball Orix Buffaloes also got the leadoff Kenya Wakatsuki in the seventh inning at 3-1 in the seventh strike and missed the struck out with a tied fastest fastball of the day at 152 km/h , and on June 12 against DeNA, with one out in the eighth inning with no outs, 2-2, the second pitch was Shugo Maki throwing from 1 strike without a runner. The 153 km/h fastball outside that caught the missed was fantastic.

He himself feels confident, saying, “My average velocity has been going up lately, and I think I’m really pitching well.” So far, his average pitch speed at fastball is 148.3 km/h. When asked why his average velocity has increased, he explained, “There’s no particular reason my speed has gone up; I’m just in good physical condition, and I think that’s the main reason.”

On May 28 against Hiroshima, he got Montero off with three balls and two strike without a 0-0 score, two outs, and no runner, and got the ball out for a 152 km/h fastball in the struck out of the second inning, two outs in the second inning with a 0-0 score. runner with no balls, he let go of Yasuki Mochimaru on a two-ball, 2-strike and got the fifth outside pitch at 150 km/h fastball in the struck out He threw outstanding fastball both on the inside and off the left-handed hitter and right-handed hitter.

"When I throw straight pitches aggressively to the inside corner on the right side, they tend to slip a little, resulting in a lot of hit-by-pitches lately, so I'm working on correcting that in practice," he said quietly.

Furthermore, more than two months have passed since he started pitching as a starter, and his instability at the beginning of games has been resolved. "If I can get through the first three batters, I can get into a good rhythm, so I'm really conscious of that when I go in, and I think I'm able to throw my best pitches from the first batter," he said, having closer the opponent runs in the first inning for five consecutive games since the game against Softbank Hawks on May 8th.

On June 12, in the game against DeNA, where he closer retired all three batters in order of the first inning, he said, "I didn't care about inning at all, just got out one by one, and before I knew it, it felt like I was in the eighth," throwing his longest 8 innings and 113 pitches since turning pro, closer to 2 runs.

He's been able to pitch long inning with a low number of pitches, and he's been able to strike out struck out not only with fastball, but also with breaking ball, so I want to continue doing this."

In particular, during the June 12 game against DeNA, with the score tied at 2–2 and Tatsuo Ebina leading off the 8th inning, he struck him out on the fifth pitch—a 139-kilometer-per-hour vertical breaking ball slider—after a 1-ball, 2-strike count struck out. That pitch was excellent.

"slider is currently the breaking ball ball I'm most confident in, so I want to continue improving its accuracy."

Regarding breaking ball, he recalled, "In the early stages of the last game against Yokohama, I was trying to control them, and Mr. Kuroki told me to be conscious of my arm swing. Once I started to be conscious of it, the batters' reactions changed, so I thought that I really need to swing my arm in the same way as my fastball."

He has been a regular in the starting rotation since his first start on April 12 against Seibu Lions. "I've been pitching with 6 days' rest in between, and sometimes with 10 days' rest, but I've managed to stay in the first team without being sent down to the farm team, so I'm hoping to hold on for about four months until the end of the season and complete the rotation." Since the game The Giants on June 5, he has been on mound at the start of each series for three consecutive games. He wants to closer the first inning under control and pitch as long as possible.

Interview and text by Yuta Iwashita