After 8 games and 23 at-bats, the first hit he hit was a home run, Sakamoto and Yomiuri couldn’t laugh after hitting 2 hits, 4 consecutive losses after 3 consecutive victories.
Hayato Sakamoto (35) of the Yomiuri Giants, who suffered from severe sluggishness, finally got his first hit of the season. The first hit he hit in eight games and 23 at-bats from the opening game was a home run.
Sakamoto played as the 6th shortstop in the Hiroshima Carp 안전놀이터game held at Matsuda Stadium in Hiroshima on the 8th. He was dropped from the starting lineup on the 7th, but returned to the starter after two games.
In both at-bats in the 2nd and 4th innings, he left runners behind and retired with a bum hit. He was out with a ground ball to third base from first out and first base in the second inning, and a floating ball to left field from first out and first and second base in the fourth inning. 22 at-bats in a row without a hit since the opening game. Sakamoto got on base with a walk in the ninth inning the previous day as a pinch hitter.
He got his first hit in his third at-bat in the seventh inning as he was trailing 0–6. He started as the lead batter and attacked the 141km/h fastball thrown by Hiroshima starting pitcher Hiroki Dokoda (27). He caught a low course ball in the middle of the strike zone on ball count 1B and sent it over the center fence.
It was his 2206th career hit and his 267th career home run. Sakamoto holds the record for the most hits in active baseball in Japan.
He has a special relationship with Hiroshima and Mazda Stadium. Sakamoto’s last home run was against Hiroshima held at Matsuda Stadium on July 3 last year.
In the last at-bat in the eighth inning that followed, he hit a left-handed hit. 4 at-bats, 2 hits, 1 RBI, 1 run. In defense in the 4th inning, he made a bad throw.
I didn’t feel good at hitting from the trial game. He went 4-for-36 with no home runs in 14 games, batting 1.1 with a penny and two RBIs. His hitting slump continued into his regular season. In the end, against the Chunichi Dragons on the 2nd, in the 7th inning, he made a send-off bunt from 1st and 2nd base. It was the first sacrifice bunt in 557 days after the Hiroshima match held at Matsuda Stadium on September 22, 2021.
He hit his first home run of the season, but he couldn’t laugh.
Sakamoto got 2 hits, and 4th Kazuma Okamoto (27) hit 3 hits for the second day in a row, but Yomiuri lost 3-6. After winning 3 games in a row, he lost 4 games in a row.
On the other hand, Hiroshima, who suffered four consecutive losses in the opening season, won three in a row.