Pitcher Takahisa Hayakawa, the first-ranked rookie in the draft of professional baseball Rakuten, will rise to the mound of the actual battle for the first time in the practice game on the 20th, and on the 18th he threw 42 balls to make adjustments.
Pitcher Hayakawa is a left-handed pitcher with a fastball of 155km and a variety of changing balls, and is expected to play an active role in starting rotation from the first year.
On the 20th, in a practice game with Nippon-Ham Fighters in Kin Town, Okinawa Prefecture, which is Rakuten's campsite, he will be pitching for the first time after becoming a professional, and on the 18th, two days before the pitching, he will use a bullpen to change the ball. I threw 42 balls in the center.
In this practice game, pitcher Masahiro Tanaka, who returned to Rakuten for the first time in eight years, will start, and pitcher Hayakawa will be the second pitcher to be the first relay in the old and new drafts.
In the pitching practice on the 18th, Pitcher Hayakawa tried the gripping method taught by Pitcher Tanaka before the practice about the cut ball of his own ball, and he said that he bent more sideways than before.
After the practice, he talked with pitcher Tanaka for more than 15 minutes with the ball in one hand, and received advice on the release and way of thinking when throwing a changing ball.
Regarding his first pitching, Hayakawa said, "I feel frank that I'm nervous. I'm worried about throwing after Tanaka, but I'm still doing what I can, so I want to do what I can." Was there.