7 out of 9 starting members are left-handed hitters, Miyazaki, Austin, Soto and others on the bench
■ DeNA 3-2 Hanshin (9th, Yokohama)
DeNA, who finished 3rd in the Central League, beat Hanshin 3-2 at their home ground Yokohama Stadium on the 9th. In the 9th inning, when the score was tied, outfielder Taishi Ota hit the left front in a timely manner to decide the game. It is 0.5 games behind second place Hanshin, and 9 games behind leader Yakult. It is the first time in about two months since June 7 that the game difference with the top has narrowed to a single digit. More than the result, the tactics that Daisuke Miura took in this game gave us a sense of the great potential of DeNA in the future.
The theme was “Overthrow Aoyagi”. The DeNA batting line had 3 losses from 3 games this season against pitcher Akihiro Aoyagi, who started from Hanshin, and had an ERA of 3.00 before the game. Furthermore, he had 0 wins and 4 losses in 5 games last season and an ERA of 1.91. For two years, he had never touched Aoyagi.
Therefore, Manager Miura lined up 7 out of 9 starting lineups and left-handed batters against Aoyagi, who throws right sideways. The only right-handed hitters are Kuwabara, the 2nd middle fielder, who is also the key to defense, and Maki, the 4th. Mori was the first, Sano was the third, Kusumoto was the fifth, Tobashira was the sixth, Miyamoto was the seventh, and Shibata was the eighth.
This countermeasure against Aoyagi also produced a by-product. A gorgeous right pinch hitter was to refrain from the bench. Toshiro Miyazaki, an infielder who boasts a batting average of .312, which ranks fourth in the league, is not a player who would normally be out of the starting line-up for reasons other than injury, but Manager Miura said, “(Aoyagi) is a difficult pitcher to catch. I have to do something different. I decided to ask Toshiro (Miyazaki) to come from the middle, and I told him, “Please prepare well.”
In addition, outfielder Tyler Austin, whose right elbow is not perfect, who had a cleaning operation immediately after the opening, infielder Nephtari Soto, who was the home run king twice, and outfielder Tatsuo Ebina, who has shown remarkable growth and has started in 40 games this season. , and Ota and others remained as a hand piece of Director Miura.