This season’s Central League entered a different phase from July 9th.
Until then, Yakult is running alone. Magic 53 was lit on July 2nd, which was the “fastest lighting record”. The previous record was July 6, held by Nankai in 1965, but this was broken.
However, on July 9, a shock ran through.
A total of 14 people, including director Shingo Takatsu, Tetsuto Yamada, Hideki Nagaoka, and pitchers Noboru Shimizu and Reito Taguchi, were found to be infected, and the Hanshin match was canceled. After that, Yasutaka Shiomi and others withdrew, and the strength went down at once.
The so-called “seventh wave” of the corona misfortune. The damage spread not only to Yakult but also to each baseball team. In other words, from July 9th, the pennant race will proceed with anxiety that the main players will leave, and it has continued for two months, and even now the anxiety has not been completely dispelled.
In this paper, we considered the two months from July 9th to September 8th as a special period due to Corona, and considered the impact on each team (*The results in the text are as of the end of September 8th). .
Looking at the wins and losses and the goal difference in the two months of the corona wreck, it is clear that DeNA and Hanshin are winning, and Yakult, the current leader, has also struggled.
[1st place]Yakult, goal difference minus 30 … “Two painful months”
Yakult was abundant from May to July. Last season’s No. 1 team in Japan had the impression of increasing its “solidness”, such as recording 14 wins on the same card. However–.
When the main players, including Director Takatsu, withdrew on July 9, the battle resumed from the Chunichi match on the 13th under the command of Yuichi Matsumoto, the army strategy coach. The record is 4 wins and 9 losses, and the goal difference is minus 30. Cases where the pitchers were driven in and suffered a crushing defeat began to stand out.
Looking back, the impact of the corona disaster on Yakult was more severe than I had imagined. In the case of Yakult, as the main players left at once, the momentum that had hitherto ceased, and even after the players gradually returned, it took a considerable amount of time to return to normal form.
The players gradually returned, but the tough battles continued even in August, and they lost 7 straight from the Giants match on August 5th to the DeNA match on the 12th. did
Numbers that pop out the eyeballs of “Muragami”
Still, Yakult’s record in August was 12 wins, 11 losses and 1 draw. I think I could have won even if I had 7 consecutive losses, but this is all because of the existence of “Muragami”.
Murakami’s batting in August will go down in Japanese professional baseball history.
