Guillermo Herredia (SSG Landers), the first hitter with batting average, Matt Davidson (NC Dinos), and Austin Dean (LG Twins), the first hitter with RBI. Foreign hitters are sweeping the top ranks in major batting areas this year as well. Three are in the top five in home runs and four are in the top five in RBIs. Davidson is the second in RBIs and Austin is the fourth in homers.
Mel Rojas Jr. (KT Wiz), who returned after the Mexican league, easily surpassed 30 homers-100 RBIs. He ranked fourth in homers and RBIs. He had a devastating failure for the Hanshin Tigers for two years, but he returned to the KBO league and is excited. Davidson hit 43 homeruns to become the homerun king, and he hit 19 homeruns at the Hiroshima Carp last year.
Japanese professional baseball, where “throwers and batters” are raging, continues to play more prominently than foreign players. Some teams are led by foreign players, but domestic batters lead the race.
Okamoto in 2020, Okamoto-Murakami in 2021, Murakami in 2022, Okamoto in 2023.
The two have shared the home run title in the Central League for the past four years. Foreign hitters won the home run title for three years from 2017 to 2019 before Okamoto Kazuma (Yomiuri Giants) and Murakami Munetaka (Yakurt Swallows). Alex Guerrero (Junichi Dragons) stood tall in 2017 and Neftali Soto (Yokohama BayStars) in 2018-2019.
After flying to Japan in 2018, Soto made 41 home runs in the same year. He hit 43 home runs in his second year, winning his second consecutive home run title. He moved to the Chiba Lotte Marines last winter and is a key hitter. He has 19 home runs-82 RBIs in his new league.
In 2020, Okamoto and Murakami, both in their sixth and fourth years in the professional league, hit 39. They tied for home run king. The following year, Murakami shook Japan. He hit 56 home runs, surpassing legendary home run king Sadaharu Oh (chairman of Softbank Hawks) and setting a new Japanese single season home run record.
Shohei Ohtani (LA Dodgers) and Masataka Yoshida (Boston Red) will represent Japan at the World Baseball Classic (WBC) in 2023
Saks) and Kondo Kenske (Softbank Hawks) were the center hitters.
Last year, Okamoto beat Murakami. He was the third homerun king and the lone top-ranked player in three years. He hit 41 homeruns, overwhelming Murakami, who hit 31 homeruns. He exceeded 40 homeruns for the first time in his career.
Shugo Maki (Yokohama), a third-year college graduate, took the top spot in RBIs. He hit 20 home runs and posted 103 RBIs for three consecutive years since his debut season. Maki was the only player in both leagues to have triple-digit RBIs last year. Okamoto followed with 93 and Murakami with 84.
In an away game against the Chunichi Dragons held at Nagoya Dome on Sunday, Murakami hit a one-run homer to left-center in the ninth inning. Daisuke hit a fastball 145 kilometers per hour that was thrown at 2B2S by right-hander Sobue of the Chunichi Dragons. It was his 25th homer of this season. 안전놀이터
Murakami has been sluggish lately. He had no homers in 11 consecutive games, before hitting his 24th homerun against the Chunichi Dragons on Tuesday. Chunichi started at his second at-bat in the fourth inning
He hit a one-run homer off Hiroto Sukahashi. He fired a cannon after 12 games and 50 at-bats. It was Takahashi’s first homerun this season, which ranks first in ERA.
Okamoto and Taylor Austin of the Yokohama Orioles, who both hit 22, are right behind Murakami. Okamoto has no homers in four consecutive games, and Austin has failed to add in the past six games. Seiya Hosokawa (Chunichi) and Maki are tied for fourth with 20.
Murakami seems to have some advantage in this home run race. Okamoto’s Yomiuri Giants is competing for first place, while Austin’s Yokohama Giants is competing for third place. Individual performance and records cannot be checked. Yakult, on the other hand, is at the bottom of the list. It has become far from fall baseball. Team performance is less burdensome.
The RBI single will be a close race. Okamoto leads with 69, Morishita Shota (Hanshin Tigers) with 68, Murakami with 67, Maki with 66, and Jose Osuna (Yakurts) with 65. As each team has 15 to 20 more games to play, it is unpredictable.
In the Pacific League, Kondo ranks first in batting average, and Hotaka Yamakawa (Softbank) ranks first in home runs and RBIs. Yamakawa is leading the game with 31 home runs and 89 RBIs.