Correspondent Han Yong-seop] In a short game like the Korean Series, it is common to see starting pitchers as ‘1+1’. In the World Baseball Classic (WBC), where there is a pitch limit system for player protection, ‘1 + 1’ can be actively utilized.

In contrast to the 토토사이트 Japanese national team’s perfect ‘1+1’ mound management, the Korean national team’s pitching management was confused. 

In the match against China, Shohei Ohtani (4 scoreless innings) followed by Shohei Dogo (3 innings) was responsible for Japan’s match against China. In the match against Korea, when starter Yu Darvish (3 runs in 3 innings) was shaken, Imana immediately raised a shota and took the flow in the middle of the game with 1 run in 3 innings. 

In the match against the Czech Republic, starter Roki Sasaki (3⅔innings, 1 run), bullpen Yuki Udagawa only took responsibility for one out, and from the 5th inning, Hiroya Miyagi came up and recorded a save of 1 run in 5 innings. In the game against Australia, starting pitcher Yamamoto Yoshinobu (4 scoreless innings) followed by Takahashi Kyuji stepped up with 2 scoreless innings. 

Last year, Togo went 12-8 with an ERA of 2.62, Imana went 11-4 with an ERA of 2.26, Miyagi went 11-8 with an ERA of 3.16, and Takahashi, who had a shutout in the 2021 Japan Series, went 8-2 with a 2.63 ERA last year. They are starting pitchers.

In the short game, they played a perfect 1+1 role behind the top 4 starting musketeers of the Japanese national team, Ohtani, Darvish, Sasaki, and Yamamoto. They were responsible for long innings with the bullpen for just one game, and passed the ball to a professional bullpen agent in the 8th and 9th innings. Miyagi had plenty of pitches, so he threw until the end of the game. 

Japanese coach Kuriyama said, “I thought it was important to be the second pitcher after the starter,” and said of Imanaga, who threw well in the game against Korea, “I prepared (for the second pitcher assignment) from last November, and he played that role really well. gave,” he praised.