Japanese ace Darvish (37, San Diego Padres), who is preparing to participate in the 2023 World Baseball Classic (WBC), tasted bitterness from his juniors in live pitching.
Japanese media such as ‘Nikkan Sports’ reported on the 21st that Darvish threw a total of 24 balls against 5 batters in the national team training held in Miyazaki, Japan.
In this live pitching, Darvish allowed Murakami Munetaka (23, Yakult Swallows) a home run that went over the middle wall. In the second at-bat, he caught Murakami with an infield grounder, but gave up a left-handed hit in the third at-bat.
Live pitching is a training in which pitchers pitch in the same situation as in a real game with a batter standing at the plate. It is one of the exercises conducted during the spring camp to enhance the pitcher’s and hitter’s sense of actual play.
Although Darvish left a regret for allowing a long hit to a younger junior, he praised Murakami’s batting ability. He explained, “I tried to throw a two-seam fastball toward myself, but the ball was driven to the middle,” and “I was surprised to see (Murakami) hit it in one go.”
In addition to Murakami, Darvish faced other top hitters in Japan’s professional baseball league, but he rarely allowed hitting hits. Murakami hit 56 homers last year and, befitting a hitter who broke the record for the most homers in a single season by a Japanese player, showed himself not to be weighed down by Darvish, one of the leading starting pitchers in the major leagues.
In an interview with the Japanese media, Murakami shared his emotional feelings, mentioning the memory of Darvish becoming the winning pitcher in the 2nd WBC final match against Korea in 2009 when he was an elementary school student. 온라인바카라
From the point of view of Korea, which has to deal with Murakami, it has been confirmed once again that it is the number 1 target to be wary of. It is expected that a careful game will be important to avoid hitting long hits while not stacking runners in front of Murakami as much as possible.
Darvish is likely to start as a starting pitcher for the Korean War in Group B of the 1st round of the 2023 WBC finals to be held at the Tokyo Dome in Japan in March. For the first time in 14 years since the 2009 WBC, he has to play the role of the eldest member of the Japanese national team as well as the first starter in the national competition.