Yu Darvish, a Japanese national team pitcher, practiced pitching against the batter in a joint practice with Chunichi for the WBC = World Baseball Classic, which will be the first game in a week.
The Japan national team is planning to play a send-off match against Chunichi on the 3rd and 2nd consecutive days as part of their preparations for the WBC, which will have its first match on the 9th of this month.
Pitcher Darvish, who joined from the national team training camp last month, cannot participate in this send-off game, so he adjusted by throwing the batter against the opponent in a joint practice with Chunichi held in his Nagoya on the 2nd. .
Joint practice is carried out in the form of alternating between offense and defense for each inning, and in the first inning, pitcher Darvish is unable to control both fastballs and breaking balls, and with dead balls and foreballs, he carries runners on his back as 1st base and 2nd base. I got off the mound once when the number of pitches reached 23, with two consecutive hits in a timely manner.
In the second inning, which was reworked, he showed pitching that let him hit and take it, and held it down with three people.
The number of balls this time was 12 balls.
In the following 3 innings, the lead batter was hit, but he managed to keep a clean sheet.
The number of balls this time was 15 balls.
Throwing 50 pitches over three innings, Darvish had 3 hits, 1 foreball, 1 dead ball and 1 strikeout against 12 batters.
Pitcher Darvish said, "I suddenly hit a dead ball in the first inning, and I was upset and it became difficult to throw the in-course, but I gradually felt a good feeling. In the third inning, it hit my finger straight. , The curve was good, and I was glad that I was able to throw without depending on the slider."
And he was enthusiastic about the competition, saying, "I will train and take care of myself so that I can improve my condition as much as possible, and I will not compromise and do not let my guard down."
Director Kuriyama "Otani joins the Ashita team"
Hideki Kuriyama, manager of the Japan national baseball team, responded to a reporter's question about when Shohei Otani would participate in practice, saying, "I think I'll just join the team tomorrow. He's a player who understands, so I'm not worried about adjustments."