The pitcher who won the ‘Sawamura Award’ for two consecutive years is the fourth starting pitcher for the national team. Once again, I was surprised by the level of players in Japan.
Yamamoto started the match against Australia in the final match of Group B in the first round of the 2023 World Baseball Classic (WBC) held at the Tokyo Dome in Japan on the 12th, and came down the mound with 4 innings, 1 hit, 8 strikeouts and no runs. Japan leads 7-0.
Last year, Yamamoto recorded 15 wins, 5 losses, 1.68 ERA, 205 strikeouts, and .750 win rate in 26 games and 193 innings last year. He pitched six complete games, including a no-hitter in the regular season, and won the Pacific League and Japan Series championship titles at the same time.
Brawler 2021-2022, multiple wins, average ERA. He recorded first place in the strikeout and win rate categories, making an unprecedented history of winning 4 crowns for 2 consecutive years. This year, the Sawamura Award, given to the best pitcher in Japan, belonged to Yamamoto. The Sawamura Prize was also awarded consecutively.
After Shohei Otani (China match), Darvish Yu (Korea match), and Sasaki Loki (Czech match) in the first round, Yamamoto, who was on the mound as the 4th starter, showed perfect pitching, as if the order of the 4th selection was meaningless. 예스벳 토토
Yamamoto struck out lead batter Tim Kennelly in the first inning, grounded Alex Hall to second baseman, and struck out Robbie Glendining. In the second inning, he struck out Daryl George and grounded first baseman Aaron Whitefield. Rickson Wingrove also struck out.
In the third inning, he got his first hit. He struck out leadoff hitter Logan Wade but allowed a hit to left to Robbie Perkins. first hit. However, Ulrich Boyarski struck out on three pitches to catch it. Kennelly also continued his stable pitching by cooking with a missed second baseman grounder.
In the 4th inning, the left fielder hit the ball and Glendining struck out. And at the end of a 9-pitch game with George, he struck out a swing and scored the 8th strikeout and came down the mound.
Yamamoto, who threw 60, almost reached the limit of pitches in the first round (65), handed the ball over to left-hander Keiji Takahashi from the 5th inning.