Chunichi’s Hideaki Wakui: “Daisuke Matsuzaka’s Words That Made Me Resolve to Succeed”—22 Consecutive Wins Since His Rookie Year!

Running until I was satisfied

“I decided to stop trying to pitch easily. When people take the easy way out, they just keep heading in the wrong direction. I used my whole body, and by the end, I was practically staggering as I threw.”

Chunichi’s Hideaki Wakui (40) looks back on the game in which he achieved a feat that only three players in history have accomplished. Wakui started against Hiroshima on July 11, allowing one run over six innings to earn his first win of the season.His 22 consecutive seasons with at least one win—dating back to his rookie year—is a remarkable feat, second only to former Hankyu player Tetsuya Yoneda and Yakult’s Masanori Ishikawa. Wakui continues:

“For me, the ideal is the form I had in high school (at Yokohama High School in Kanagawa). Lifting my left leg high and storing power in my lower body as I shift my weight…Now that I’m 40, I can’t throw with the same power in my form as I did when I was a teenager, but I want to get as close to that ideal as possible. That’s why I’m pushing myself to the limit. I can’t take it easy. Even now, I train just as hard as I did when I was young—I run relentlessly until I’m satisfied and work to strengthen my lower body.”

Wakui was a highly touted pitcher even during his time at Yokohama High School. With his sharp fastball and diverse array of breaking balls, he excelled on major stages—such as the Koshien Tournament and the National Sports Festival—starting in the spring of his sophomore year. He was dubbed the “second coming of Daisuke Matsuzaka,” a reference to the school’s legendary alumnus.However, since being selected in the first round of the draft and joining the Seibu Lions in 2005, it hasn’t been easy for him to rack up wins over the past 22 years. Even this baseball elite has faced adversity and endured frustration behind the scenes.

“I was in good form during spring training in my first year with the team, so I made the first-team roster for the season opener. But once the season started, my desire to ‘win’ grew so strong that I couldn’t pitch as aggressively as I had in spring training. When my team took the lead, I’d think, ‘I have to protect this lead,’ and my mindset shifted toward playing it safe. I think I naturally ended up pitching in a way that was more about avoiding trouble.”

During his first year, he shuttled back and forth between the first and second teams, posting a record of 1 win and 6 losses with a 7.32 ERA—results that fell short of expectations. His second-team manager at the time, Hisanobu Watanabe, offered him this stern advice:

“Pitching to avoid contact isn’t something you should do when you’re young. If you stick with that style, 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 pro if I continued like this. That’s when it started—back then. That’s when I began running relentlessly. During the offseason of my first year, to get back to basics, I ran silently and without a single day off on the field at my alma mater, Yokohama High School.”

“Go out there as the starting pitcher and pitch a complete game.”

Thanks to his relentless running, Wakui’s lower body became remarkably more muscular. Although he himself denies it, saying, “It has nothing to do with all that running,” there’s even an anecdote that the knees of a pair of jeans he bought the previous year ripped the moment he sat down.

Having rebuilt his lower body, Wakui posted strong records of 12 wins and 8 losses in his second year (2006) and 17 wins and 10 losses in 2007, winning his first Most Wins title. It was around this time that he received words from Seibu’s cornerstone, the “Monster” Daisuke Matsuzaka, that would become the foundation of his pitching going forward.

“It was right before Matsuzaka-san was set to take on the challenge of the majors in 2007. While we were having a meal, he said to me, ‘Waku, you’re the one who’s going to lead this team starting next year. Pitch complete games as a starter.’ Once I’m entrusted with the mound, I have to take responsibility and pitch through to the very end… Matsuzaka-san’s words made me resolve to do just that.”

Complete games as a starter—as of last year, Wakui boasted 60 complete games, the most among active players. In today’s game, where specialization among pitchers—starters, middle relievers, and closers—is the norm, this is a remarkable statistic. It is likely the result of the stamina he cultivated through rigorous running drills.

During the offseason of 2007, after winning the most wins title, Wakui was asked if he would like to change his jersey number from 16 to 18—the ace’s number. However, he declined.

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

Another turning point came in his fifth year with the team. In February 2009, Wakui was selected for the Samurai Japan roster for the second World Baseball Classic (WBC).

“I’d also been selected for the Japanese national team at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, so I was confident I could perform well in international competitions… but the three pillars of the starting rotation—Daisuke Matsuzaka, Hisashi Iwakuma, and Yu Darvish—were rock-solid. In the end, I never got a chance to start.
It was frustrating. I thought long and hard about why I wasn’t trusted to start on the international stage and what set me apart from those three pitchers.I can’t throw a ball with enough power to shut down foreign power hitters like Matsuzaka or Darvish. What I learned was how to pitch aggressively. Those three weren’t afraid of hitting batters; they kept attacking the strike zone relentlessly. I vowed to pitch more aggressively myself.”

In the 2009 season following the WBC, Wakui posted a 16-6 record to win his second “Most Wins” title since 2007. His innings pitched were 213 and 211 2/3, respectively—virtually unchanged from one year to the next. However, the quality of his pitching was vastly different.

・2007: 141 strikeouts, 58 walks and hit batters

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

Compared to 2007, his strikeouts increased by 58 and his walks and hit-by-pitches by 27. This is evidence that he was pitching aggressively, targeting tight spots in the strike zone rather than relying on inducing weak contact.

From the September 25, 2026 issue of *FRIDAY*