It’s a headache no matter who comes out. The Japanese baseball team is in an atmosphere to do its best in the 2023 World Baseball Classic (WBC) Korea game.
Japan held its first training session on the 17th at San Marine Stadium in Miyazaki, Japan. The heat is so hot that 18,541 baseball fans come to the stadium to see the best Japanese baseball stars gathered in one place. Japan, which won the WBC in 2006 and 2009, 먹튀검증 is determined to lift the championship trophy again after 14 years. Expectations are higher as top stars currently active in the big leagues, such as Shohei Ohtani (29, LA Angels) and Yu Darvish (37, San Diego Padres), join.
Japan was placed in Group B along with Korea, China, Czech Republic and Australia in the first round. In Group B, the opponent Japan should be most wary of is Korea. Looking at objective history, it is true that Korea is the most advanced, except for Japan.
While raising questions about who will start for the Korea-Japan match, which is important in many ways, the Japanese media are first picking Darvish as a strong candidate. This is because Japanese coach Hideki Kuriyama declared, “Darvish is the first starter for the national team.”
Darvish is the most experienced veteran in Japan’s starting lineup. He started in 242 games over 10 seasons in the major leagues, recording 95 wins and 75 losses, 1488 innings, and an average ERA of 3.50. even agreed. He played an active role as the ace of the WBC championship in 2009, and has high reliability within the Japanese national team.
Darvish is so skilled that even major league hitters are picky. Even though he is in his late 30s, he recorded the highest fastball speed last season at 98.1 miles (157.8 km) and the average speed at 95 miles (152.8 km). He uses a cutter as his main weapon, and freely uses various breaking balls such as sliders, sinkers, splitters, and curveballs. The number of pitches per round is limited to 65, but with Darvish’s control, he can look at more than 5 innings.
Sasaki Loki (22, Chiba Lotte Marines) is considered as the card that Japan will send out as an irregularity. Sasaki has emerged as Japan’s new ace, throwing fastballs that reach up to 164 km. In April of last year against the Orix Buffaloes, he recorded 19 strikeouts and no runs in 9 innings without a walk or a hit, writing the history of the youngest perfect game (20 years, 5 months) in Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB) and making his name known to domestic baseball fans.
Sasaki made his first practice match against the Yakult Swallows in Okinawa, Japan on the 15th and recorded 29 pitches, 1 hit, 5 strikeouts and no runs in 2 innings. Even in mid-February, he showed off his best condition, recording a maximum speed of 160 km. If we judge that Sasaki’s condition has reached its peak ahead of the Korea-Japan match, he is bound to make a change.
Darvish and Sasaki are equally burdensome opponents to Korea. On the 17th (Korean time), Korea won 8-2 thanks to the firepower of the other line with 14 hits in the evaluation match against the NC Dinos held at the Keno Sports Complex in Tucson, Arizona, USA. Kang Baek-ho (24, kt Wiz) and Choi Jeong (36, SSG Landers) sang a home run chorus to liven up the atmosphere. Korea is diligently improving its condition so that it can attack Japan’s difficult pitchers.