22 Consecutive Seasons With a Win Since His Rookie Year! Hideaki Wakui on the Words From Daisuke Matsuzaka That Changed His Mindset

Running until he was satisfied

“I decided to stop taking the easy way out when pitching. When people take it easy, they gradually head in the wrong direction. I used my entire body and kept throwing until I was completely exhausted.”

Chunichi Dragons pitcher Hideaki Wakui (40) reflects on the game in which he achieved a historic feat. Wakui started against the Hiroshima Carp on July 11 and earned his first win of the season after allowing one run over six innings. Winning for 22 consecutive seasons, starting from his rookie year, is a remarkable achievement surpassed only by former Hankyu Braves pitcher Tetsuya Yoneda and Yakult Swallows pitcher Masanori Ishikawa. Wakui continues:

“My ideal is the form I had when I was in high school at Yokohama High. I would raise my left leg high and store power in my lower body as I shifted my weight onto it… At 40, I can’t pitch with the same level of exertion in my form that I had when I was a teenager, but I want to get as close to that ideal as possible. That’s why I push myself. I mustn’t take it easy. Even now, I do the same amount of training as I did when I was younger, running and strengthening my lower body as much as I need to until I’m satisfied.”

Wakui had been a highly regarded pitcher since his days at Yokohama High. With a sharp fastball and a wide variety of breaking pitches, he excelled on major stages such as the Koshien tournament and National Sports Festival from the spring of his second year of high school. He was called the school’s next “Daisuke Matsuzaka,” after its legendary alumnus. However, after joining Seibu in 2005 as the first overall draft pick, building up 22 consecutive seasons with a win was far from easy. Even as a baseball prodigy, he experienced adversity and privately endured plenty of frustration.

“I was in good form during the preseason in my first year, and I made the Opening Day roster. But once the regular season began, I became too focused on wanting to win, and I could no longer pitch aggressively like I had during the preseason. When my teammates took the lead, I became too defensive, thinking, ‘We have to protect this lead.’ I think that naturally led me to pitching more cautiously and trying to avoid giving up runs.”

In his first year, he went back and forth between the first and second teams, posting a disappointing record of 1–6 with a 7.32 ERA. His then-second-team manager, Hisanobu Watanabe, criticized him:

“Pitching while taking your foot off the gas isn’t something you should be doing when you’re young. If you pitch that way, your career will be over in five or six years.”

Wakui felt a sense of crisis.

“I strongly felt that I wouldn’t be able to survive as a professional if I continued like that. That’s when I started running relentlessly. During the offseason after my first year, I went back to basics and ran quietly every single day without taking a day off on the grounds of my alma mater, Yokohama High.”

“As a starting pitcher, you have to finish what you start”

Thanks to running every day without taking a break, Wakui’s lower body became noticeably more muscular. He himself denies that it had anything to do with all the running, saying, “It has nothing to do with running,” but there is even an anecdote that a pair of jeans he had bought the previous year ripped at the knees when he sat down.

After rebuilding his lower body, Wakui posted a strong 12–8 record in his second year in 2006, followed by a 17–10 record in 2007, when he won his first Pacific League wins title. It was around this time that he received words from the monster Daisuke Matsuzaka, Seibu’s ace, that would become the foundation of his pitching philosophy thereafter.

“It was just before Matsuzaka-san left to challenge the majors in 2007. We were having a meal when he said to me, ‘Waku will be the one leading the team next year. As a starting pitcher, you have to finish what you start.’ Once you’re entrusted with the mound, you have a responsibility to pitch all the way to the end. Matsuzaka-san’s words made me resolve to take on that responsibility.”

Complete games as a starter—the number of complete games Wakui had recorded through last season was 60, the most among active pitchers. In today’s game, where the division of labor among starting pitchers, middle relievers, and closers has become the norm, that is a remarkable figure. It was likely the result of the stamina he developed through his relentless running.

During the offseason after winning the wins title in 2007, Wakui was offered the opportunity to change his jersey number from 16, which he had worn until then, to 18, the number traditionally associated with an ace. However, Wakui declined.

“It’s true that I had become attached to No. 16, which I had worn since joining the team. But more than that, I felt that I still wasn’t a pitcher worthy of wearing No. 18. I felt that I couldn’t accept the ace’s number unless I had won every pitching title there was to win.”

Another major turning point came in his fifth year as a professional. In February 2009, Wakui was selected for Samurai Japan’s roster for the second World Baseball Classic.

“I had also been selected for Japan’s national team for the Beijing Olympics in 2008, so I was confident that I could perform well in international competitions. But the three-man starting rotation of Daisuke Matsuzaka, Hisashi Iwakuma, and Yu Darvish was rock-solid. In the end, I never got an opportunity to start.

I was frustrated. I thought long and hard about why I wasn’t being entrusted with a starting role on the international stage and what the difference was between me and those three pitchers. I couldn’t throw the kind of powerful pitches that could overpower foreign power hitters like Matsuzaka-san and Darvish. What I learned from them was aggressive pitching. The three of them attacked the strike zone relentlessly with difficult pitches without being afraid of hitting batters. I vowed that I, too, would become more aggressive in my pitching.”

In the 2009 season following the WBC, Wakui went 16–6 and won his second wins title since 2007. His innings pitched were 213 in 2007 and 211⅔ in 2009, hardly any different between the two seasons. However, the content of his performances was markedly different.

・2007: 141 strikeouts, 58 walks and hit batters

・2009: 199 strikeouts, 85 walks and hit-by-pitches

Compared with 2007, his strikeouts increased by 58 and his walks and hit batters increased by 27. This could be seen as evidence that he was no longer simply pitching to induce weak contact, but instead attacking hitters by targeting difficult areas of the strike zone.

From the September 25, 2026 issue of “FRIDAY”