Six-time Golden Glove Award winner makes a bad throw to first base
■Lotte 5-0 Seibu (9th, Omiya)
Strong winds lashed the local stadium. Seibu, which is tied for first place with Softbank, lost to Lotte 5-0 on the 9th in a sponsored game held at Saitama Prefectural Omiya Park Baseball Stadium. The unfamiliar dirt ground and strong winds cast a shadow over the match.
It was a rare scene. The defense of the fourth inning ended with neither team scoring any points. With one out and one on first base, Lotte’s No. 5 outfielder, Koki Yamaguchi, released a sloppy grounder. Infielder Sosuke Genda, who has won the Golden Glove Award for six consecutive years, stepped forward and caught the ball, then threw the ball badly to first base. An error was recorded, and the pinch spread to second and third base with one death, leading to two runs conceded in this inning.
Manager Kazuo Matsui said, “It’s a collaborative effort (with the pitchers), so I’d like to do that again so I can support them.” Heavy rain of 13.5 millimeters fell in the vicinity of Saitama City, where Prefectural Omiya is located, around 11 a.m., and even after the game started, grounders were hitting slow speeds on the water-filled dirt infield. There was a big difference from the artificial turf in regular dome stadiums.
Additionally, during the game, a strong wind was blowing from the home field to left field. For better or worse, outfielder Junichiro Kishi, who played the entire season as the “6th left wing”, was affected by this trend. In his 7th at-bat, he hit a fly ball toward center field, which expanded rapidly and hit the fence, giving him a double. “The wind was terrible today. He rode well in that at-bat,” he said with a nod.
However, it backfired on their defense in the 8th inning as the score was 0-3. With two outs and 1st and 2nd base, Lotte’s catcher Tatsuhiro Tamura threw a fly ball to left field. Kishi, who was playing forward defense, ran after him desperately and tried to make a diving catch, but it went over his head, resulting in a 2-run double. Ta.
Taira’s fastball averaged 143km/h, “In my opinion, it hasn’t changed.”
The record for this batted ball was a double, and manager Matsui did not blame him, saying, “We (the leaders) were giving instructions to advance defense, and on top of that, it was like that.”
Kishi himself said, “I can’t use that as an excuse,” and added, “I should have cut my line of sight the moment I hit the ball and started running, but since it looked like I was stuck, I couldn’t get up to speed, and the ball hit the wind more than I expected. It didn’t fall off when I got on it,” he explained. “Whether I was caught or not, it was a failure for me. I’m disappointed,” he said, biting his lip.
Outfielder Aito, who was with Seibu until last season and was transferred to Lotte in the active draft, also participated as a pinch runner, but in the 8th inning when he was defending right field, he dropped a foul fly near the right field line and was recorded as an error. There was a scene where Kishi said, “It’s rare for him to make an error. It was difficult for him to even drop it,” Kishi said, thinking of his teammates until last season.
On the other hand, starting pitcher Kaiba Taira suffered his first loss of the season (1 win) by giving up 7 hits and 3 runs in the 7th inning, but the 2 runs he gave up in the 4th inning was due to Genda’s mistake, so he only allowed 1 earned run. “I don’t think there’s anything to worry about,” he said with a satisfied look on his face.
However, the average fastball speed, which normally would easily exceed 150km/h, was 143.4km/h on this day. There were also two fastballs that were listed as 137 kg. “That was strange, of course. It’s not really helpful. To me, it wasn’t any different than usual,” he said.
Additionally, the Seibu cheering team in the left field cheered up the mood by singing the “Omiya Limited Chance Theme,” but unfortunately they were unable to score. Seibu had one win and one loss at Omiya Prefectural Championship last season. One more game this season is scheduled for June 26th against Nippon-Ham. He only plays at the stadium twice a year, but will he be able to put his experience to good use next time?
(Hirohisa Miyawaki)
2024-04-10 04:06:46
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