Shohei Ohtani (29) of the Los Angeles Angels gave advice to a Japanese national team pitcher who is having difficulty adapting to the World Baseball Classic (WBC) official ball.
Japanese media Nikkan Sports said on the 4th, “The scene where Yuki Matsui (Rakuten), who was beaten after taking the mound as the third pitcher in a practice game against Chunichi on the 3rd and recording 2 hits, 3 walks and 4 runs in ⅔ innings, is talking to Ohtani in the dugout. This was captured,” he said.
Matsui is a top left-handed finisher who played 53 games (51⅔ innings) last season with 1 win, 3 losses, 7 holds, 32 saves, and an average ERA of 1.92. Thanks to these performances, he was selected for the WBC Japan team, but it is not easy to adapt to the WBC official ball, which uses the major league official ball.
Matsui, who said, “The ball that goes in surely doesn’t come out consistently,” said Matsui, “Starting with the official ball, I started to pay attention to various things as it went off little by little. Overall, the flow is not good.” 스마일 토토
Ohtani stepped in for Matsui, who was struggling with the problem of adapting to the official ball. Ohtani, who joined the national team on the 3rd, is a superstar who is active as both pitcher and hitter in the major leagues. In particular, last season, as a pitcher, he recorded 15 wins and 9 losses with a 2.33 ERA in 28 games (166 innings), ranking 4th in the American League Cy Young Award voting. Ohtani also has know-how in adapting his official ball as he entered the major leagues while playing in Japanese professional baseball.
Matsui, who revealed that he received advice from Ohtani, said, “It is good to throw with a feeling of leaning forward. His left arm is raised and ready before his right foot can reach it. As he took it like that, he was told that it would be good if he was conscious of putting the point in front,” he explained.
Encouraged by Ohtani’s advice, Matsui made up his mind, saying, “I want to do what I can for sure.”