When I was called up from the farm team during my first year, we were paired together. Also, when I greeted him at the players' association year-end party last year, he told me, 'You're the one who has to step up!' I intend to take those words to heart as I move forward.

Lotte's Ryusei Terachi is striving to grow into a core player for the team, keeping the words he received from Yuki Karakawa close to his heart.

Terachi, who recorded a .290 batting average to rank second in the Eastern League in 2024 during his first professional year, made his pro debut as the 'No. 1 DH' in the game against Nippon-Ham on October 3 of the same year. In his first plate appearance with no runner out in the first inning trailing 0-1, he hit the first pitch, a 136 km/h cutter thrown by starter Kota Tatsu, for a doble that hit the left field wall directly. He recorded his first hit in his first professional plate appearance.

On October 4, in a game against Softbank Hawks, he started as the seventh batter catcher starting line-up and showed a strong lead, closer the starting Shunsuke Nakamori runs five innings without a , then took a pitch from Karakawa in the sixth inning with the score tied 0-0. Karakawa runs in the sixth inning of the first inning, throwing 39 pitches over two innings, giving up two hit and one runs, making it a lose pitcher.

Incidentally, while Karakawa usually gets ahead with strikes, on this day he unusually struggled with his control and fell behind in counts. Even so, in the 7th inning, his second inning of work, with one out and no runners while trailing 0-1, the first pitch he threw to Taisei Makihara—a 119 km/h vertical curveball—was excellent.

In an interview on October 7, 2024, Karakawa reflected, 'I threw the curveball because the signs for it came up more often during my previous outing. I was able to get some swings and misses, so I feel like it's becoming a better pitch than before. I'm getting more swings and misses now, so in that sense, I think it's improving.'

In an interview on the same day, Karakawa explained the reason for the high pitch count, saying, 'Part of it was that my control wasn't very good. I was trying to throw without shaking off the signs, so the reason for the high pitch count was that I couldn't meet the catcher's expectations in that regard.'

Terachi appeared in a team-high 77 games as a catcher last season but did not catch for Karakawa, and although he has worn the mask in four games in the farm league this season, he has not appeared as a catcher in any games where Karakawa pitched.

Terachi's strength lies in his batting. Last season, despite being only in his second year out of high school, he made the most of his limited at-bats, earning a starting line-up position. He made his first All-Star appearance, reached the required number of at-bats, and played in 116 games, recording a batting average of .256, 5 Home Run, and 33 RBI. His 106 hit are the most hit recorded by a second-year high school graduate in the team's history since the 21st century.

While high expectations were placed on his hitting power, he was converted to third base during the practice game period in February and has played there since the start of the season. Although he hit .300 immediately after the opening, his average gradually declined, at one point falling into the .100s. Since being promoted back to the top team on August 19, he has showcased his inherent batting strength, recording a monthly average of .319 in September.

Although his batting average is lower than last season, he has 5 Home Runs, the same as last season, and his RBI count is not much different, with 30 so far this season compared to 33 last season. As Karakawa told Terachi, "You're the one who has to step up!", there will be no bright future for The Marines unless he becomes the kind of presence who leads the team in both offense and defense from next season onward.

Interview and text by Yuta Iwashita