Lotte's Kazuya Ojima has started three games since the All-Star break and achieved a Quality Start (6 innings with 3 or fewer earned runs) in all of them.

In his previous appearance on August 20, against Rakuten Eagles, where he earned his fifth win, he said, "Since the fastball wasn't very well suited to the course, I switched to using a bit of breaking ball and switching to a straighter," and in the first inning, he actively threw fastball, but from the second inning onward, he mainly threw breaking ball pitch.

He said that fastball weren't hitting their target very well, but in the fifth inning with two outs and a runner on first, with the score 2-0, he got McCusker to foul off a 141 km/ cutter on the inside corner on the fourth pitch after a 2-ball, 1-strike count, and then struck struck out looking with a 147 km/h fastball on the outside corner on the fifth pitch.

Reflecting on that moment, he said, 'I thought where I threw the fastball would be very important, so I was already thinking of throwing one in that situation. Since Toshiya (Sato) also gave me the sign for it, I was able to throw it with confidence.'

Regarding breaking balls, the 136 km/h fork that struck out McCusker swinging on a 2-ball, 2-strike count in the first inning with one out and runners on first and third and a 1-0 score, had a good drop from the strike zone to the ball zone, and the precision of the fork seemed good.

Recently, both my fork and change-up have been good, so I want to continue—or rather, practice hard to make sure they don't hang and do my best.

He also felt positive about his cutter, saying, "I think it's becoming a strength of mine because I've recently been able to effectively use high cutters to the right and cutters on the outside."

The slider was also good, specifically the 131 km/h slider that struck out Ryosuke Tatsumi looking on the outside corner from a 1-ball, 2-strike count to lead off the 3rd inning with a 2-0 lead.

However, he himself seems unable to throw the ball as he envisioned, saying, "The slider doesn't feel quite right, so I'm planning to practice to improve it by my next appearance. I'm asking various people like Nakamori about the slider and going through trial and error."

One point of concern is that he hasn't been throwing his vertical slider much. "My accuracy on the inside to right-handed hitters isn't very good, so I want to be able to throw there consistently. If I can do that, I think I'll be able to pitch even better by leveraging my current strengths," he revealed.

Reached 1,000 career innings pitched

On August 14, in a game against the Seibu Lions, he achieved a career total of 1,000 innings pitched. While expressing his gratitude to those who have supported him, saying, "First and foremost, I want to thank my parents for giving me a strong body. The care I receive to pitch in every game is indispensable to me; without it, I wouldn't be able to pitch. I'm also grateful to the team's coaching staff and trainers. Furthermore, if Iguchi-san, Yoshii-san, and Saburo-san hadn't needed me and put me in the game, I wouldn't be pitching at all, so I'm happy about that," he looked toward the future, adding, "I want to treat this as just a milestone and work hard so that I can pitch many more innings."

When he was younger, he followed in the footsteps of seniors such as Manabu Mima, Hideaki Wakui, and Ayumu Ishikawa, but now he has reached a position where he leads the starting rotation.

Rather than just being in a leadership role—and the younger ones are quite reliable, so it's not that I don't feel that way—I believe I can still do more myself. I think without that mindset, you can't sustain a long career. I always feel that I'm still capable of more, so I want to continue giving my all from here on.

Having achieved 1,000 innings pitched, when asked if he wanted to pitch 2,000 innings or what his goal for how many innings he wants to pitch in the future is, he expressed his determination, saying, "I don't really know about that, but I wonder... first, I want to do my best to reach 2,000."

His strength is pitching long innings. In tonight's outing as well, he will pitch as many innings as possible to reduce the burden on the bullpen.

Interview and text by Yuta Iwashita