[Orix Buffaloes] Kenya Wakatsuki came through! A go-ahead triple over right field in the 8th inning. “Since the .100 wall was approaching…” The player representative showed his grit.
Sports Hochi
Pacific League: Orix Buffaloes 7, Rakuten Eagles 5 (26th, Kyocera Dome Osaka)
Orix Buffaloes catcher Kenya Wakatsuki decided the game. He started the game batting eighth as the catcher. In the eighth inning, after the team tied the game following an opponent’s error, he hit a go-ahead triple over the right fielder off Tai with one out and a runner on second. The player association president had been struggling with a .201 batting average before the game. “The outfield was playing shallow, so I just focused on making solid contact. Since I was close to dropping into the .100s… I held on for the first stage,” he said with a wry smile.
In the third inning, he led off with a hit to right field, and in the sixth, he hit one to center with one out, marking his third three-hit game of the season. Having been hitless for six consecutive games until now, he wore a look of relief, saying, “I finally got a hit after a while, and I think that helped me get into a rhythm.” After the WBC in March, he has started as catcher in a team-high 82 games. “I was the number five hitter and DH on Opening Day, so I want to work hard to reclaim that spot,” he said, vowing to further improve his hitting.
The team overcame a five-run deficit to avoid falling to four games below .500, which would have been the worst mark in Manager Kishida’s two years in charge. On the 27th, Mukunoki, who has recovered from an upper-body injury, is scheduled to be re-registered. With 27 games remaining, the team is in fourth place, 6.5 games behind third-place Nippon-Ham. Wakatsuki spoke for the entire team, saying, ‘We are playing with the determination to make it to the CS no matter what, right until the end.’
