[NPB NOTEBOOK] Hanshin Tigers Starter Hiroto Saiki is Excelling on the Mound

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The Hanshin Tigers may not be on quite the torrid pace they were in 2023 when they won their first championship in 38 years, but one player is exceeding all expectations in 2024.

That would be starting pitcher Hiroto Saiki, who has a Central League-leading eight wins along with 85 strikeouts and a stellar 1.11 ERA in 14 games.

In his most recent start on Tuesday, July 2, the 26-year-old right-hander from Hyogo Prefecture turned in another gem.

Saiki struck out six and allowed just one hit and two walks over seven scoreless innings at Hiroshima's Mazda Stadium to help his team to a 3-0 win over the front-running Carp.

Hanshin lefty Suguru Iwazaki (3-3) worked the ninth to earn the win.

The game was a classic pitchers' duel between two of the top starters in Nippon Professional Baseball.

Hiroshima starter Masato Morishita struck out nine over eight scoreless innings.

*The Hanshin Tigers scored three runs in the 10th inning in a 3-0 victory over the Hiroshima Carp on July 2 at Mazda Stadium. (©SANKEI)*

After no scoring through nine innings, the Tigers broke out in the 10th on a one-out walk, a single by Kairi Shimada and a throwing error before two more runs scored on back-to-back hits.

The three runs the Tigers scored in the top of the 10th marked the first time this season Hanshin scored more than one run in any inning beyond the ninth.

In extra-inning games this season, the Tigers have five wins, five losses and five ties.

Saiki Has Become a More Well-Rounded Pitcher for the Hanshin Tigers

Saiki finished the 2023 season with an 8-5 record, 107 strikeouts and a 1.82 ERA. In addition to his impressive number of wins this season, he already has three shutouts.

To what does he attribute his success this season?

In an interview with national broadcaster NHK, Saiki said the results this season are due to the fact that he has added a number of pitches to his repertoire.

Last season, Saiki relied on his fastball and forkball but he says that made him too predictable to batters. So now he has added off-speed pitches like curveballs and sliders.

"If a batter is waiting on a fastball, I can now throw a curve or a slider to get ahead in the count," Saiki told NHK. "I have been using such pitches more and more and it appears to be paying off."

Saiki was chosen by Hanshin as the third pick in the 2017 draft.

He got six wins in his second year in 2018 but then injured his right elbow and underwent Tommy John surgery to repair a ligament.

Saiki got advice from former Hanshin closer Kyuji Fujikawa, who also had the same surgery. After an extensive rehabilitation program, Saiki has indeed made an impressive comeback.

Saiki was first among Central League pitchers in voting for this month's NPB All-Star Series with 451,456 votes, more than double the amount received by second-place Katsuki Azuma of the Yokohama DeNa BayStars.

Meanwhile, the Tigers (36-35-5) are right in the thick of things in the CL, three games back of the front-running Hiroshima Carp.

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Author: Jim Armstrong

The author is a longtime journalist who has covered sports in Japan for over 25 years. You can find his articles on SportsLook.