On July 31st, the Hiroshima Carp faced DeNA in an attempt to continue their winning streak. In front of the “former ace,” “left-handed ace” Hiroki Tokoda engaged in a heated pitching battle.

Before the game, Chris Johnson, who was the ace pitcher during the Carp’s golden age, will show off his nostalgic pitching form at Mazda Stadium for the first time in a long while.

The starting pitcher for the Carp was Tokoda, who has the most wins so far with nine in the league. He was in a pinch from the first inning, and his palm ball was bounced back to the shortstop. Masaya Yano made a fine play and got through the inning without giving up a run.

He had runners on base twice, but after jamming them with a two-seam fastball, Tokoda showed some calm fielding and turned in a double play.

In the third inning, he got a double play with a cut ball. From the beginning, he used a variety of pitches to prevent the powerful DeNA batting line from doing their job.

In the bottom of the 4th inning, with two outs, Shogo Sakakura was in top form and hit a single to center field.

The next batter was Ryosuke Kikuchi, who has a good record against the opposing starting pitcher, Katsuki Higashi, with a career batting average of .380. He hit the ball down the third base line and into a long hit course. With this hit, the runner on first base, Sakakura, kicked off second base, kicked off third base, and ran hard to get home. They scored a valuable first run.

The Carp’s attack is not over yet. The next batter, No. 7, is Yano, who had a great hit in the previous game. “I’m glad this was a good additional point for Tokoda-san who is pitching hard,” he said, hitting a timely hit for the second game in a row. The Carp took the lead with two points in this inning.

With the support, Tokoda gave up one run in the sixth inning, but in the seventh inning, with two outs and runners on second and first, he managed to get out of the pinch by jamming the second batter, Masashi Kuwahara, with a straight pitch. “I started pitching with a variety of pitches from the beginning,” Tokoda said. Although he gave up eight hits in the seventh inning, he only allowed one run, and left the mound with the right to his 10th win.

Hiroki Tokoda 7 innings, 86 pitches, 8 hits, 2 strikeouts, 1 run allowed

After that, the Carp replaced the pitchers. In the 8th inning, Hahn and in the 9th, Kuribayashi Ryosei allowed no runs despite having runners on base, ending the game. Tokoda achieved his 10th win, the fastest in the league. As a left-handed pitcher for the Carp, he became the first to achieve double-digit wins for two consecutive years since Johnson, who made the ceremonial pitch that day. (Hiroshima 2-1 DeNA)