The Hanshin Tigers may not be on quite the torrid pace they were in 2023 when they won their first championship in 38 years, but one player is exceeding all expectations in 2024.
That would be starting pitcher Hiroto Saiki, who has a Central League-leading eight wins along with 85 strikeouts and a stellar 1.11 ERA in 14 games.
In his most recent start on Tuesday, July 2, the 26-year-old right-hander from Hyogo Prefecture turned in another gem.
Saiki struck out six and allowed just one hit and two walks over seven scoreless innings at Hiroshima's Mazda Stadium to help his team to a 3-0 win over the front-running Carp.
Hanshin lefty Suguru Iwazaki (3-3) worked the ninth to earn the win.
The game was a classic pitchers' duel between two of the top starters in Nippon Professional Baseball.
Hiroshima starter Masato Morishita struck out nine over eight scoreless innings.
After no scoring through nine innings, the Tigers broke out in the 10th on a one-out walk, a single by Kairi Shimada and a throwing error before two more runs scored on back-to-back hits.
The three runs the Tigers scored in the top of the 10th marked the first time this season Hanshin scored more than one run in any inning beyond the ninth.
In extra-inning games this season, the Tigers have five wins, five losses and five ties.
Saiki Has Become a More Well-Rounded Pitcher for the Hanshin Tigers
Saiki finished the 2023 season with an 8-5 record, 107 strikeouts and a 1.82 ERA. In addition to his impressive number of wins this season, he already has three shutouts.
To what does he attribute his success this season?
In an interview with national broadcaster NHK, Saiki said the results this season are due to the fact that he has added a number of pitches to his repertoire.
Last season, Saiki relied on his fastball and forkball but he says that made him too predictable to batters. So now he has added off-speed pitches like curveballs and sliders.
"If a batter is waiting on a fastball, I can now throw a curve or a slider to get ahead in the count," Saiki told NHK. "I have been using such pitches more and more and it appears to be paying off."
Saiki was chosen by Hanshin as the third pick in the 2017 draft.
He got six wins in his second year in 2018 but then injured his right elbow and underwent Tommy John surgery to repair a ligament.
Saiki got advice from former Hanshin closer Kyuji Fujikawa, who also had the same surgery. After an extensive rehabilitation program, Saiki has indeed made an impressive comeback.
Saiki was first among Central League pitchers in voting for this month's NPB All-Star Series with 451,456 votes, more than double the amount received by second-place Katsuki Azuma of the Yokohama DeNa BayStars.
Meanwhile, the Tigers (36-35-5) are right in the thick of things in the CL, three games back of the front-running Hiroshima Carp.
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The Drawbacks of All-Star Voting
I get that fan voting for the NPB All-Star Games is a good thing and it keeps people involved in the sport.
But sometimes it can result in some unfair results.
Domingo Santana of the Tokyo Yakult Swallows is having a spectacular season but finished fourth overall in fan voting for outfielders.
As of this writing on Thursday, July 4, Santana leads the CL with a .313 batting average, is tied for first with 42 RBIs and is tied for third with 11 homers.
Santana finished fourth in All-Star voting behind Koji Chikamoto of the Tigers, Seiya Hosokawa of the Chunichi Dragons and Yoshitomo Tsutsugo of the BayStars.
Tsutsugo is a fan favorite but is only batting .206, with 18 RBIs and six homers, numbers that pale in comparison to Santana's.
Santana's latest heroics came in a 5-3 win over the BayStars on Wednesday, July 3 when the former major leaguer drove in two runs in the top of the ninth with a double to seal the win.
"I was just trying to make contact in that situation," Santana said after the game. "Our pitcher pitched a great game and I just wanted to do something to help him out."
The pitcher Santana was referring to was Yakult starter was Taichi Yamano, who settled down nicely after giving up a three-run homer to Shugo Maki in the first inning.
Yamano didn't get the win but held Yokohama scoreless after the homer over seven complete innings.
Players Pick Santana for the All-Star Team
Fortunately, Santana was voted onto the All-Star team by his fellow players, it was announced on Thursday.
This season's All-Star Games are on Tuesday, July 23 at Es Con Field Hokkaido and the following night at Tokyo's Jingu Stadium, which just happens to be Santana's home park.
Austin Lighting it Up
Tyler Austin had a 20-game hitting streak before being given the night off on Thursday, July 4 by BayStars manager Daisuke Miura.
Austin went hitless in his first three at-bats in the aforementioned 5-3 loss to the Swallows. But then he had a long infield single in the bottom of the ninth against the Swallows to preserve his hit streak.
Austin, who plays first base, is currently in his fifth season with Yokohama. He previously played in the major leagues for the San Francisco Giants, New York Yankees, Minnesota Twins and Milwaukee Brewers.
The only time he played in over 100 games was in 2021 when he batted .303 with 74 RBIs and 28 homers.
In 45 games this season, Austin has a .310 batting average with eight homers and 27 RBIs.
It was a bit of an unusual move for Miura not to play Austin on Thursday but he must have had his reasons. Yokohama won the game 3-0.
The BayStars (38-35-1) are currently in second place in the CL standings, just two games behind Hiroshima.
Author: Jim Armstrong
The author is a longtime journalist who has covered sports in Japan for over 25 years. You can find his articles on SportsLook.
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