“Believe it or not, Imanaga played for Australia before.”
The Australian baseball team openly cheered for Japan to win the 2023 World Baseball Classic (WBC). There are some legitimate reasons. This is because the best stars produced by Australian baseball are starting pitchers in the finals. The main character is Japanese left-hander Imana Shota (30, Yokohama).
On the 22nd (Korean time), Imanaga is scheduled to start the final against the United States at the ‘2023 WBC’ held at Rondipo Park in Miami, Florida, USA. In this tournament, Japan maintained a starting rotation that led to Shohei Otani (29, LA Angels) – Yu Darvish (37, San Diego) – Sasaki Rocky (22, Chiba Lotte) – Yoshinobu Yamamoto (25, Orix), but four in the final. All climbs were difficult. Ohtani had agreed in advance to double pitching only until the quarterfinals, and both Sasaki and Yamamoto pitched in the semifinals against Mexico on the 21st. Darvish’s appearance in the final remained a question mark, but Japan chose Imanaga anyway.
Australia was an unexpected country that welcomed the news of Imanaga’s start for the final. On the Australian Baseball Association’s social media, a photo of Imanagawa pitcher Steve Kent (34, Melbourne) and catcher Robbie Perkins (29, Canberra) together was posted along with a post cheering for Imanagawa and Japan’s victory.
Australia said, “Imanaga will start as a starting pitcher for Japan in the final match against the United States at the WBC. It’s probably a match that many fans are expected to watch as it will go down in baseball history. Believe it or not, Imanaga has never played for Australia before. There is,” he introduced first.
“Imanaga played for the Canberra Cavalry in the 2018-2019 season of the Australian Professional Baseball League (ABL). The picture was taken with Kent and Perkins, who are Imana’s Canberra colleagues and the Australian national team in this tournament,” he added. The friendship between the three players continues to this day.
As an old colleague and friend, Kent also left a desperate message to support Imanaga. Kent said: “Imanaga was a Japanese baseball superstar even before he came to Canberra to play. He came to Canberra because he had a subpar season (in Japan in 2018), but by normal standards he had a decent season. It was back.” I looked back.
“Imanaga came to Canberra to perfect his skills and pitching, and in the process he had probably the best season in ABL history,” he added.
After being sluggish in Yokohama in 2018 with 4 wins and 11 losses in 23 games, 84⅔ innings and an average ERA of 6.80, Imanaga struggled desperately while playing in the ABL without a break. In Canberra, he made a big success with 4 wins in 6 games, 35 innings, an average ERA of 0.51, 1 walk, and 57 strikeouts.
Kent explained, “Imanaga was a great teammate, and you have no idea how famous he was on the team. It must have been after seeing him when I went to Bondi Beach with the Japanese people who almost fainted at the sight of him.” 카지노
Australian players felt the popularity of Imanaga once more when they went to Tokyo, Japan for this tournament. Kent said, “When we were in Japan, there were advertisements for Samurai Japan (the name of the Japanese baseball team) all over Japan, and Imanaga’s face was plastered with Otani, Darvish, and Murakami Munetaka (23, Yakult). I got to know how big of a star he is in Japan,” he boasted to Australian baseball fans. And I wholeheartedly cheered for Japan and Imanaga to follow their luck in the finals.
Imanaga pitched in two games in this tournament and recorded one run in four innings (2.25 ERA). Will Imanaga be able to win her third WBC championship trophy since 2006 and 2009 in Japan thanks to the support from Australia, which was the stage for her comeback?