Major league player Otani Kohaku is a pitcher in the match and the return to the match is also rough.

Major league player Otani Kohaku and pitcher are back in the field, and the return to the match is very rough. 3 times 7 walks 7/8 12:39

Shohei Otani of the big league Angels pitched on the 7th in the red and white match at the camp, and after the surgery on his right elbow that he received in October, he went up to a match-type mound for the first time.

In October, Otani received surgery to transplant ken on his right elbow where he found damage, and then he practiced rehabilitation and pitching to return to the pitcher.

On the 7th, Otani pitched for the irregular rule of Red and White at a camp held at the baseball stadium in Anaheim, the base of the Angels, and became the first match in a year and 10 months since the official match in September. It went up.

Otani had no control from the first time and suddenly gave the first batter a straight foreball.

The following batter hit the ball with an empty strikeout, but then gave him another foreball, and the inning was rounded up halfway.

The pitching was preceded by the ball twice, and after two consecutive foreballs, a hit was made before the light, and the foreball continued three times.

Otani threw 50 balls in 3 innings and played against 10 batters with 1 hit, 7 foreballs and 1 strikeout, which made him feel the effects of being far away from the actual battle.

Still, Otani said, "I wasn't particularly scared. It was good that I was able to throw a good number of balls."

In addition, he said, "I felt that it was completely different from the ball-pening, because I was right batter, so I left the ball."

Otani will continue to fight in the future and aim for starting rotation.

The road to return to pitcher

In 2018, Otani had an operation on his right elbow on October 1st, the day after the regular season ended.

Surgery is a procedure called "Tommy John's surgery" in which the injured ligament of the elbow is removed and the tendon is transplanted. One tendon was considered suitable for transplantation, and after removing the ligament of the right elbow, a tendon taken from the same right arm was transplanted.

After the operation, while relaxing the affected area, the right arm was extended to gradually expand the range of motion of the arm, and about a month later, the patient moved to full-scale rehabilitation such as muscle training for the right arm.

After that, I became able to practice batting, and on May 7, last year, seven months after the surgery, I returned as a batter at the Tigers game.

Approximately nine months after the surgery, from the end of June of last year, I started to practice pitching with a bullpen and gradually increased my strength and the number of pitched balls.

In September of last year, which was the end of last season, I had an operation on my left knee, but in mid-December last year, I finished rehabilitation as a pitcher and recovered with a bullpen of about 80% power. It was.

At the camp that started in mid-February this year, he also showed that he had thrown 6 times with a bullpen and threw powerfully.

Furthermore, after the camp was interrupted due to the influence of the new coronavirus, he continued to pitch by voluntary training, and from the end of May, he practiced pitching against the batter once a week to cultivate a sense of return. Otoshito, I've reached a match-type mound for the first time in 1 year and 10 months since the official game in September.