At an away game against the Yakult Swallows held at Meiji Jingu Stadium in Tokyo on Sunday, the Hanshin Tigers swept three consecutive games during the week against the Chunichi Dragons by a score of nine to one. The team had 13 hits including one grand slam, destroying the Yakult mound. The lineup, which had been struggling due to lack of concentration, scored nine runs in just two days following the game against the Chunichi Dragons on Sunday.
Hanshin, who has been competing with the Hiroshima Carp and the Yomiuri Giants for first place, fell into a slump in August and was slightly pushed out of the lead. It had only 12 wins (14 losses) in 26 games held in August. The sense of crisis has heightened.
The team has won four consecutive games this month, changing the mood of the league. The gap between the two teams has narrowed to 1.5 games. The team ranks third in the Central League, 2.5 games behind the top-ranked Yomiuri Giants.
Four central hitters flew high in the game against Yakult on Sunday. They are Koji Chikamoto (30), who played as center fielder at No. 1, Shota Morishita (23), fourth-first baseman Yusuke Oyama (30) and fifth-third baseman Teruaki Sato (25). They are key hitters that Hanshin boasts as well as the champion of last year’s Japan Series.
Morishita gave up four hits, Oyama and Sato had two hits, and Chikamoto had one hit. The four of them had nine hits and eight RBIs.
In the top of the first inning, Morishita hit a timely hit to center field with one out and runners on second base. In the top of the second inning, when the score was tying 1-1, No. 1 Chikamoto brought back the lead with a timely hit to the right. With no outs and runners on third base in the top of the fifth inning, No. 4 Oyama hit a double that fell on the left-field line, and No. 5 Sato hit a critical hit to add two more runs.
With a 5-1 lead in the top of the sixth inning, Sato hit a home run that sealed the victory. With the bases loaded with two outs, he hit his 12th grand slam of the season. He pushed an outside fastball thrown by his opponent, Yuya Onaka, to the left stand of Meiji Jingu Stadium.
Chikamoto, Morishita, Oyama, and Sato are Hanshin’s first draft picks. Oyama, Chikamoto, 2019, Sato, 2021 and Morishita wore the Hanshin uniform with the first pick in 2023.
Japanese media reported that for the first time in the club’s history, four first-time rookie draft players had 100 hits at the same time.
Through Sunday, Chikamoto had 139, Morishita had 107, Oyama had 104, and Sato had 102. Last year, the three of them, excluding Morishita, had triple-digit hits. Morishita, who debuted last year, produced 79 hits during the rookie season.
All four of them graduated from college and came to Hanshin. Chikamoto graduated from Kansai University and went through Osaka Gas, a social baseball team. The fact that four first-designated players are active as main players at the same time proves that Hanshin scouts are excellent.
As of Tuesday, Chikamoto is tying for first in hits and No. 1 in stolen bases. Oyama and Sato are tying for eighth in homers, and Morishita for fourth in RBIs.
Morisita is displaying strong performance. She has posted four RBIs in the past three games, and is now trailing first place by five. Due to her strong chance, she had 42 hits in 114 times at bat and posted a batting average of 350. She ranks second overall in the batting average of all players in the scoring area.
Sato has had triple-digit hits, double-digit homers and more than 60 RBIs in four consecutive years since his first year in the professional league. He has swept 11 RBIs in his last six games.
Chikamoto was included in the “Best Nine” for the third consecutive year, 2021-2023 and received the Golden Glove. Oyama hit a double-digit home run for the sixth consecutive 100-7th consecutive year. 메이저사이트
Looking at them, there are KBO league teams and players that naturally come to mind. These are young pitchers that the Hanwha Eagles recruited as the top priority for the three years from 2022-2024. Moon Dong-ju (21), Kim Seo-hyun (20) and Hwang Jun-seo (19), who are called the future of the Eagles, are all in the first division entry. These three players were evaluated as the best pitchers with high school graduates in the year when the rookie draft was held. They are like the “gift” that the Hanwha Eagles, the last team, received while suffering humiliation.
Moon, who pitched 118 ⅔ innings last year, said, “This is the first full-time season. He has established himself as an axis of the starting lineup, but has not improved as much as expected. He also had time to reorganize in the second division due to sluggish performance, not injury.
The upward trend is encouraging at the end of the season when fierce competition is underway. He finished the past three games with quality starts (more than six innings as a starter and less than three earned runs). He pitched six scoreless innings against the Lotte Giants on August 27 and one run in six innings against the Doosan Bears on September 3.
“Young Gun” Kim Seo-hyun, who had many twists and turns, has gained weight as an intermediate pitcher. He has yet to gain confidence, but his role has grown. Hwang Jun-seo, who started in the first team, was jagged. He has won two games (eight losses) as a starter and is moving on to the bullpen to gain experience. Kim Seo-hyun and Hwang Jun-seo, who are in their first and second years of high school graduates, need a little more time to become main pitchers.
The three of them took the mound together in three games this season. They are against Doosan on April 10, KIA Tigers on July 19, and KT Wiz on August 1. In the previous two games, Moon became a losing pitcher when he collapsed early on. In the game against KT on August 1, starter Moon Dong-ju allowed two runs in five innings and won the game. Hwang Jun-seo, who played for the second time after Moon, allowed three hits and one run in ⅔ innings, and Kim Seo-hyun allowed three walks in ⅓ innings.
On the day when the three players leap to the core power like Hanshin’s first-place hitters, “the strongest Hanwha” is likely to be possible in reality.