In the first four games of the interleague season against the Hiroshima Carp, the Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks suffered an accident in which their main player, Yuki Yanagida (35), was forced to withdraw from the game due to an injury to his right semitendinosus muscle. Will there be a new “Kokubo strategy” for the league games that resume?
“Yanagimachi is a player we’ll use in the starting lineup.”
Although the team was faced with an emergency situation where they were missing a corner of the clean-up line-up, the young players who were promoted to the first team performed well. When asked about the team’s good record of 12 wins and 6 losses in the interleague games, manager Kokubo mentioned Tatsuya Yanagimachi (27). “I had promoted Yanagimachi to the first team just before the interleague games, and I think that my initial idea of preparing him as a starter from the beginning of the season paid off,” he said.
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Manager Kokubo has said for some time that “Yanagimachi is a player I’ll use in the starting lineup.” Yanagimachi’s batting average in June was .391. As a result, he is filling the hole left by Yanagida’s absence.

Regarding the timing of promoting Yanagimachi to the first team, manager Kokubo said, “He’s been hitting in the farm team (second team), and considering his own motivation, I thought I had to give him a shout-out at this time.”
He also said that after Yanagita suffered a serious injury, he played in right field and performed well, which was a major factor in the team’s six-point lead in the interleague games.

Other young players also performed well. “He’s a Keio boy from Keio University Kindergarten, so I thought Tokyo would be a good place for him to debut, so I made him play against the Giants, but maybe I put a little too much pressure on him,” said manager Kokubo with a happy look on his face. This was rookie player Ryuta Hirose (23), who was promoted to the starting lineup for the first game of the interleague games against the Yomiuri Giants and immediately started in the lineup.
Even after the interleague games, he has lived up to expectations, including hitting his first home run since turning pro.

Manager Kokubo analyzed the rookie, saying, “In the case of Hirose, after talking with Matsuyama, the manager of the second team, the thing I wanted to check most was his defense. Manager Matsuyama said, ‘His defense is fine,’ so I trusted that and called him up to the first team. At that time, I thought, ‘He can defend well now,’ and although it was my second year and I was playing second base, he is so much better than me. Absolutely. Rather than holding back and using him, I think it’s okay to just leave him at second base. He also hit his first home run. It took him a little too long to get his first hit, so I think he’s still in the process of ‘how he can respond’ to first-team pitchers.”
Yoshiyasu Sasagawa showed outstanding performance
Regarding Yoshiyasu Sasagawa (22), who made his first-team debut in his fourth year, Kokubo said, “Rather than prioritizing Sasagawa, we wanted Kawamura to bat a little more in the second team (to let him adjust) (Tomohisa Kawamura (24) was removed from the first-team roster on June 10), and if Yoshiyasu (Sasagawa) can replace Kawamura as a defensive replacement or pinch runner, then that would be sufficient. We thought he could serve as both a defensive replacement and a pinch runner, so we made the switch.” Sasagawa has lived up to expectations not only defensively but also batting.

In the interleague game against the Hanshin Tigers, he made his first appearance as a starter and hit his first professional home run in just his seventh at-bat. He showed off his long-range hitting skills, and even manager Kokubo, who has been watching him since he was the manager of the second team, couldn’t help but smile.
However, Sasagawa will be sent to the second team for the time being. Manager Kokubo explained the reasoning behind this, saying, “He’s going. Today (June 19th) he had 4 hits and 3 RBIs at Naruohama (against the Hanshin Tigers second team). He’s got good results, but he’s in the second team. He’s in the starting lineup for 3 games and on the podium for 2, so people might say, ‘Are you sending a player like that down to the second team?’ but he’s going to be sent down (since Kawamura is being promoted to the first team) (laughs).”
“The most frightening thing is the gap.”
The Hawks showed their strength in the interleague games, but they had two meetings during the games. The first was when Yanagida was absent. The second was after the game against the Yokohama BayStars on June 8th.

In the top of the fifth inning, the first batter, Yukio Shuto (28), hit a grounder to the pitcher. It was time for an out, but the first baseman dropped the ball, and it was ruled safe. However, Shuto, who thought he was out and was trying to return to the bench from the fair zone, was tagged out.

Regarding the careless play despite the ball being in play, Manager Kokubo said, “Yuuki was caught out with that kind of base running because of an opening. I said that the most frightening thing is an opening. As the saying goes, ‘the goddess of victory lies in the details,’ and I specifically mentioned that it was a play that should never have happened. I will continue to pay attention to such things in the future.”

While the team is doing well, the condition of No. 4 hitter Hotaka Yamakawa (32) is of concern. In the interleague games, he had a batting average of .230 with 3 RBIs. He had zero home runs. On this day of practice, before the start of the whole practice, he stood in the batter’s box and was seen practicing while imagining his normal swing.

Manager Kokubo praised Yamakawa’s judgment, saying, “I spoke with him for the first time today. If you don’t hit a home run for nearly a month, you start swinging at bad pitches and your aggressive behavior becomes noticeable, but (Yamakawa) didn’t have a careless swing. When I told him about it, he said, ‘In the past, when I was younger, I would try to hit a home run with force, and even if I hit a home run, my slump would last longer afterwards.’ I said, ‘It puts me out of form.’ So because of that experience, (Yamakawa) said, ‘I don’t try to hit balls that I can’t hit into a home run with force. That’s what I did in the interleague games.’ I told him, ‘Wow, you were very patient.’ He’s the type of person who thinks that missing a home run is a hit, just like when I was playing, so he can’t be satisfied even when he gets a hit.”

He also said that the presence of Kensuke Kondo (30), who bats fifth behind Yamakawa, is also a big factor. “When the ball is handed to Kondo, the team’s chances of winning go up, so I think (Yamakawa) was able to concentrate. After Yanagi left the team, Kondo was batting third, but for Yamakawa, not changing the lineup with Kondo behind him was what I felt would be the catalyst for him to get back into form. Let’s talk today,” he said, calmly analyzing the home run hitter.

Finally, when asked about his own physical and mental fatigue, the manager answered with confidence, “The team was in such good form, we were off to a good start, and now we’re halfway through the game and I say, ‘I feel something’s not right with my body’… People are saying what an exaggerated thing to say, but I’m absolutely healthy.”
The professional baseball pennant race is halfway through. There is still half left, and the tough battle continues.
(TV Nishinippon)

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