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Yutaka Takagi summarizes the Central League exchange game. What is the first team to pursue Yakult, which is the usage method that Hiroshima at the bottom should stop first? | Professional baseball | Shueisha’s sports magazine Sportiva official website web Sportiva

Yutaka Takagi’s Interleague Play Summary
Central League

In this year’s exchange game, Yakult won the championship for the first time in four years. This is the first time in history that a “complete victory” has been won over the Pacific League. Last year’s number one team in Japan once again showed its strength.
Although Hiroshima lost a lot, the Central League won 55 wins and 53 losses for the second consecutive year, but how was the fighting of each team? Yutaka Takagi, who used to play an active part in the Ocean Whales (currently Yokohama DeNA BayStars) and is now active as a baseball commentator and YouTube, talked about the summary of the exchange game of the Central League team and future issues.

Director Shinji Sasaoka (center) looking up at the heavens after making a big difference in the final Seibu battle
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–I would like to hear from Yakult, who won the championship. With 14 wins and 4 losses in the interleague game, the game behind the 2nd place giant in the league is 7 (as of June 12, the same applies below). I have the impression that each player played a solid role, centered on Munetaka Murakami, who was selected for the Most Valuable Player Award (MVP).

Yutaka Takagi (hereinafter: Takagi) There is no chance. We decided to win the championship with one match left, and the final match (the game against Softbank on June 12) was like a dead rubber match. It’s easy to feel the sense of accomplishment of winning, but Yakult won the last game as well.

With Yuhei Nakamura’s good lead, Keiji Takahashi was the best closing with a shutout victory. I felt like I was a little disappointed in hitting, but I was working hard at the game. I got the impression that it was “strong” again.

――While the powerful batting line attracted attention, the struggle of the relief team of the iron wall was also outstanding.

Takagi relief team has not scored since the beginning of June. There are so many relief pitchers that you can make rotations. Shingo Takatsu’s good point is that even when relief pitcher Ryuta Konno is not over-pitched, he has a flexible response, such as “Let’s use pitchers other than Konno for today’s game.” What you can do.

The catchers are also Yuhei Nakamura and Souma Uchiyama. When Uchiyama thinks “I don’t have a heart”, he sometimes thinks “maybe better than Nakamura” (laughs). Anyway, with Uchiyama, Nakamura can also take a rest. Hideki Nagaoka, who is a young player, is getting used to it, although he was worried about his defense at first. The player base is really thick, and I haven’t found any blind spots so far. Even without Yasunobu Okugawa, who was expected to play an active role as an ace, he is still in his current position.

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