With about a month left until the opening of the World Baseball Classic (WBC), Japan’s ‘ace’ Yoshinobu Yamamoto (Orix Buffaloes) is showing incredible pace. It has already marked 156 km/h.
Japan’s ‘Sponichi Annex’ and ‘Daily Sports’ reported on the 8th (Korean time), “Yoshinobu Yamamoto of the Orix Buffaloes put the hitter upright and threw it as if it were a real game and recorded a maximum distance of 156 km.”
Yamamoto is the pitcher representing the Japanese national team and is called the ‘ace’. Yamamoto started his professional career after being selected by Orix in the 4th round of the 2016 rookie draft. At the beginning of his debut, he played as a bullpen pitcher, but from the 2019 season he switched to a full-fledged starting pitcher and grew into a top-notch pitcher.
Yamamoto pitched in 26 games in 2021 and played 193⅔ innings, striking out 206 and recording an average ERA of 1.39 with 18 wins and 5 losses, helping Orix win the Pacific League. And last year, he threw 193 innings in 26 games, striking out 205, recording a 15-5 record with an ERA of 1.68, leading the Pacific League championship and Japan Series championship for the second year in a row.
Yamamoto led the Pacific League in wins, winning percentage, strikeouts, and ERA for the second consecutive year, and won the regular season MVP title. And he held in his arms the ‘Sawamura Award’ given to the best pitcher in Japanese professional baseball. Despite Shohei Ohtani (LA Angels) and Yu Darvish (San Diego Padres) being on the national team, ‘ 먹튀검증
There’s still a lot of time left before the start of the regular season, but Yamamoto seems serious about the WBC, throwing 156km already. ‘Daily Sports’ said, “Yamamoto threw 30 pitches against 6 batters and allowed 2 hit balls. Ryo Ota hit a big hit in the middle right, but showed excellent pitching, recording a maximum speed of 156 km. “he explained.
Yamamoto, who had a pitching form that lifted his left foot significantly until last year, has recently changed his pitching form, but it seems to have no effect on his restraint. ‘Sponichi Annex’ said, “Yamamoto showed off a powerful fastball with a new pitching form that puts his left foot low and fast.”
On this day, in addition to Yamamoto, Hiroya Miyagi and Yuki Udagawa, who joined the WBC national team, also performed live pitching. Miyagi had a jagged pitch, but recorded a maximum of 147 km and allowed three hits. And Udagawa hit 4 hit balls, and the maximum distance was measured as 154 km.