30 home runs for 7 years in a row? "Shall we adjust the batting order?" said the 4th batter coach at Kuk University
Jun 30, 2024
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Okamoto, the fourth batter of the Yomiuri Giants, is the fourth hitter of the giant and the fourth hitter of the Japanese national team. In this year's Premier 12, Okamoto is quite likely to be the center hitter.
He is one of the best home run hitters in the league until last year, the ninth in league history to record 30 home runs for the sixth consecutive year. He started playing in the first team in earnest and hit 33 home runs in the 2018 season, followed by 31 home runs, 31 home runs, 39 home runs, and 30 home runs last year, and his 'Career High' hit 41 home runs to win the home run title.
This year has slowed down somewhat. Okamoto has not been able to show his ability as a troubleshooter with a batting average of 258 with 13 home runs and 39 RBIs in 73 games until the 29th. At this rate, the challenge of 30 home runs for seven consecutive years is on the verge of collapse.
This season, the Japanese Professional Baseball (NPB) is called the second 'non-flying ball' controversy, and Okamoto is also considered to be less nutritious in hitting. Okamoto is currently ranked second in home runs in the Central League. The fourth batter of the Yakult Swallows is Murakami Munetaka (15 homers).
However, coach Abe is deeply concerned as Omamoto's batting average in scoring is only 0.227. This means that even though the table that can raise more RBIs is steadily set up, it has not been solved for sure.
In a recent interview with Japanese media, including 'Sankei Sports', Abe said, `I don't know what to do either, but there are a lot of things that keep breaking off in the fourth batting order. I think I should think about the change in batting order", indicating a change.
Okamoto has started as the No. 4 hitter in all games since the game against Yokohama DeNA BayStars on Oct. 7, 2022. In particular, due to the nature of the Yomiuri club, which considers the fourth batter's position symbolically high, the replacement of batting order is an important factor that needs to be exchanged for pride.
Abe decided to leave it to Okamoto for a little longer. He started again as the fourth batter in the match against Hiroshima Toyokaf held at Tokyo Dome on the 30th and hit a timely hit from his first at-bat to lead the team's first run.
This article was translated by Naver AI translator.
