Where'd you get the savior-like foreign batter? Joined late May and hit 26 out of 29 games, Yomiuri without Hernandez? a terrible imagination

Jul 06, 2024

Yomiuri outfielder Hernandez. He played against Softbank in the Interleague on May 28 and posted a batting average of 359 in 29 games. He is like a savior in the Yomiuri Giants, who have a team batting average of 230. He is strong in chances and has a batting average of 364 in scoring. Photo capture =Miuri Giants SNS

Hernandez, who had three hits against Seibu on June 2. He played his first three-hit game in six games. He played his sixth three-hit game against Yakult on July 5. Photo capture =Miuri Giants SNS

Starting as the seventh batter and becoming the third center hitter. Hernandez had a hit in 26 of 29 games until the game against Yakult on the 5th. Photo capture =Miuri Giants SNS

Where did they get this kind of foreign batter.

Yomiuri Giants outfielder Eliar Hernandez (30) hit another three hits. In an away game against the Yakult Swallows at Meiji Jingu Stadium in Tokyo on the 5th, he played as a third-center fielder and had hits in the 1, 7th and 9th innings. He even scored on all three occasions when he got on base with hits.

He joined the team in late May and played six three-hit games in 29 games. Yoshihiro Maru has played a team-high seven three-hit games in 74 games, one difference. It is difficult to imagine a Yomiuri lineup without Hernandez these days.

The first at-bat hit in the top of the first inning with no outs and runners on the first and third bases. He hit a timely hit against Yakult right-hander Yasuhiro Ogawa. He hit a fastball with a high first pitch. The first final hit that made it a 10-3 victory. In a postgame interview, he said "The runner was trying to play aggressively in scoring position"

Yomiuri took the atmosphere with consecutive hits by No. 1 floor, No. 2 Naoki Yoshikawa and No. 3 Hernandez. With the bases loaded with one out, he added one more run with an infield grounder. With two outs and runners on the second and third bases, No. 7 Kishida Yukinori hit a two-run timely hit. 4-0.

Hernandez served as the catalyst for the bulk of the scoring.

He hit a double to center field in his fourth at-bat in the seventh inning. Yakult's second pitcher, right-hander Daichi Ishiyama, hit the first pitch. I didn't let go of the slider that was driven to the middle. No. 5 Oshiro Takumi brought Hernandez home with a left-handed hit.

Last at-bat in the ninth inning. He went out as the leadoff hitter and hit left-handed. Yakult's third pitcher, right-hander Shimizu Novoru, hit a cut fastball on the second pitch. All three Yakult pitchers were hit. Yomiuri added three runs in the top of the ninth to seal the victory with a 7-3 lead.

The first interleague game against the Softbank Hawks at Tokyo Dome on May 28. No. 7-Started on the right wing. He reported his first hit in his first at-bat and struck out for the second time in a row. The next day, he struck out two and had one hit. On the last day of the three consecutive games, he played coolly. He hit a three-run home run with one out and runners on first and second in the bottom of the third inning, trailing 1-5. It was his first home run that became a stepping stone to the 6-5 come-from-behind victory.

Three consecutive games against the Seibu Lions, which began on May 31. I had two hits on the first day. First multi-hit in four games. One hit on June 1 and the first three hits on June 2.

Hernandez hit .352 in June. He finished first in hitting the Central League. Photo capture =Miuri Giants SNS

It produces hits almost every game nonstop. He has had hits in 26 of 29 games. He has had hits in 15 consecutive games since the away game against the Rakuten Eagles on June 13.

All indicators of attack seem to say that Hernandez is currently the best hitter in the Central League.

As of the 5th, he had 42 hits in 117 at-bats, batting average of 359 with five home runs and 18 RBIs. The on-base plus slugging percentage (OPS) is 0.943 and the scoring batting average is 364. He hit .352 (31 hits in 88 at-bats) in June. He finished first in hitting the Central League.

Hernandez overcame the superpower 'Tugotazer'

Until Hernandez came, Yomiuri played the season without a foreign hitter. Outfielder Rougned Odor, who was expected to be the center hitter, left the team just before the opening. When he was excluded from the opening game's first-team entry, he chose to leave.

Odor, who played for the Venezuelan national team, was Kim Ha-sung's San Diego Padres teammate last year. He played in 59 games and posted a batting average of .230, four homers, and 18 RBIs. He had a batting average of 230-178 home runs and 568 RBIs in 1,154 games in the Major League. He hit double-digit homers for eight consecutive years from 2015 to 2022.

Hernandez hit a three-run home run in the third inning against Softbank on May 30th. The home run led the Yomiuri Giants to a 6-5 come-from-behind victory. It was Japan's first home run that triggered a come-from-behind victory. Photo capture =Miuri Giants SNS

Hernandez's annual salary this year is 50 million yen (about 430 million won). It is a quarter of Odor's contract worth 200 million yen (1.62 billion won). Hernandez, a Dominican Republic national, has a very low major league career. All he played in 14 games for the Texas Rangers in 2022. He batted .182 with six hits and three RBIs without a home run.

He showed promise in the minor leagues. He played in 137 Triple-A games last year and posted a batting average of 298-18 home runs-99 RBIs. Before moving to the Yomiuri Giants, he played 20 games and had 289-2 home runs and 10 RBIs.

For him, Japan was a window into a new world.

Yomiuri Hernandez, who was embarrassed by the departure of foreign batters, is a savior-like player. Yomiuri has a team batting average of .237. Without Enandes, it is said that Yomiuri would have fallen to the bottom.

Yomiuri is in third place, two games behind Hiroshima. In the Central League, Hiroshima, Yokohama BayStars, Yomiuri, and Hanshin Tigers are fiercely competing for the lead. From 1st to 4th place, there are only three games.