Last season, in his third year, he cleared the required innings pitched for the first time.

pitcher Chihiro Sumida joined Saitama Seibu as the first pick in the 2021 draft. Last season, he started in 26 games and pitched 179 1/3 innings, second in the league, reaching the required number of innings pitched his career. He continued to pitch consistently throughout the year, winning nine games, third on the team. Of particular note is BB rate, which was 1.76 last season, about half the rate he recorded in his rookie year in 2022. In this article, we will look at the data to see how pitcher has reduced BB he has given and improved the quality of his pitching.

Get a favorable count with fewer pitches

The first important thing to do to reduce BB is to throw strike first. Until 2011, pitcher 's strike rate on the first pitch was in the mid-50% range, below the league average, but last season, he improved by 7.5 points from the previous year to 64.1%, above the league average. The number of at-bats where he was down to two strike after two pitches increased significantly, and he was able to compete with hitter on count was in pitcher 's favor.

Changes in pitching even after the opponent is cornered

There was also a change in pitch after driving hitter. Looking at the pitch ratio of ball types at 2 strike, the proportion of fastball and cutter with fast ball speeds gradually decreased, and the proportion of fork and change-up increased. He began to aggressively throw two types of falling balls as a deciding ball. Note that these two types of balls are used for both left and right hitter.

And pitcher Sumida threw those two pitches in the zone at a higher rate than the league average. This pitch is difficult to get a hit even if hitter gets his hands on it, and if strike is ahead, there is still plenty of room for pitcher even if he misses one pitch. The Avg at 2 strike was in the 10% range for both pitches, and it is believed that the effective use of the ball zone led to good results.

Fewer pitches allow for longer inning

His pitching style, which took control of hitter, proved effective, and he pitched 14.74 pitch per inning, two fewer than the previous year. He was the third-fewest pitcher in Pacific League to reach the required innings pitched behind Hokkaido Nippon-Ham-Ham pitcher Takayuki Kato and Fukuoka Softbank Kohei Arihara. His average innings pitched per game also increased significantly, and he achieved the "Maddux" feat of pitching a shutout game win with 99 pitches in a game against Hiroshima on June 12, 2012.

This season, he has been active since the start of the season, pitching his first shutout game of the season against Fukuoka Softbank on April 19th, and has won four straight games since the start of the season. He has given up only three Walk in a total of 31 inning, and his stability seems to be even higher than last season. The player with number 16 on his uniform is making steady progress toward helping his team advance to the top of the league and achieving his first double-digit win.


*All figures in the text and table are as of April 26, 2025.

Text and Data Stadium