Kazumi Saito, Softbank’s new 4th team manager, reveals “Why we were 15.5 games behind the Orix”.

Since the closer who pitches in the 9th inning is a non-starter, the winning pitchers who pitch in the 7th and 8th innings are rested. Instead, the young pitchers who take the mound are the ones who start preparing around the middle of the game and pitch in the second position in games with a big lead or as a losing pitcher.

I wanted them to pitch in tense games won by two or three runs so that they could gain experience. If they gain confidence, the relievers with winning patterns will have more energy left over in the fall.
There was one day when the winning relievers were pitching a lot and couldn’t pitch. It was a good opportunity, so I decided to “pull as many starters as possible and let the youngsters take care of the rest. I told rookie Ryosuke Otsu (24), ‘If I get into a save situation today, it’s you. I was so tickled, but I was also very nervous. I was excited, saying, ‘Let’s make it a close game, let’s make it a close game. In the end, the score was even, but I wanted to give him an opportunity to pitch in a game like that.

However, the team, which was under strict orders to regain the championship, could not afford to do so. In order to win a close game, early inning relievers were used more and more, and relief pitchers who had a winning pattern were overworked.

The youngsters’ pitching opportunities were drastically reduced or they were dropped to the second team if they gave up a few runs. It was heartbreaking to see youngsters such as Yuki Tsumori, 25, who pitched well, and Fumimaru Taura, 24, a southpaw who had no trouble against right-handed hitters, lose confidence. The same goes for Otsu. He doesn’t stand out that much in the bullpen, but once he gets into a game, he transforms. He has mound guts and pitches in an aloof manner that makes us gasp. Even so, around the middle of the season, he started to get scared and began to get hit by pitches, but everything, including that, is an experience. I couldn’t protect them and said to them, “Tsumo (Tsumori), your performance dropped after the interchange games last season, so if you can make it a full year, you’ll grow from last year,” or “Otsu, let’s aim to make it a full year without injury. If you can do that, there will be nothing but positive things this year, no matter what happens. As the pitching coach, I am not strong enough.”