This year’s World Baseball Classic (WBC) will feature the strongest starting lineup in the history of the Japanese national team. Attention is focusing on which pitcher to send against Korea in the first round. In Japan, the outlook is mixed.

On the 29th, Japanese media ‘Nikkan Sports’ predicted the WBC selection rotation of the Japanese national team.

Japan, which will face China, Korea, Czech Republic and Australia in order in Group B of the WBC 1st round, will have Shohei Ohtani (LA Angels), Yu Darvish (San Diego), Rocky Sasaki (Chiba Lotte), Yoshinobu Yamamoto (Orix) in their starting rotation. to be.

In response, the media said, “It is likely that Ohtani will start in the match against China (9th) and Darvish will start in the match against Korea (10th).” ‘ he predicted. 토토사이트

The quarterfinals will be held on the 15th and 16th. If you place 1st in Group A, you will face 2nd place in Group A on the 16th, and if you finish 2nd in Group A, you will face 1st place in Group A on the 15th. At this point, Japan is likely to be ranked first in the group, and in the quarterfinals, Ohtani and Darvish can be selected as starters in turn.

Both Korea and Japan see the ‘Korea-Japan match’ as ​​an important match that will decide first place in the group. As much as Korea’s selection for the game against Japan, Japan’s starting pitcher for the game against Korea is also of utmost interest. But the outlook is mixed.

Previously, in ‘Sports Nippon’, ‘Japanese national coach Hideki Kuriyama will determine the starting rotation by calculating the date from the WBC quarterfinals on the 16th as a starting point’ It can be done,’ he predicted.

Even in Japan, prospects for the starting pitcher for the Korean War are mixed. And Korea also has a different temperature difference between Ohtani and Darvish.

Ohtani started two games against Korea at the 2015 WBSC Premier 12 tournament eight years ago, overwhelming the Korean lineup with a reverse pitch of 13 innings, 21 strikeouts, and no runs. Since he has grown more than 8 years ago and has become a player who dominates the major leagues, it is inevitable that Ohtani will be afraid of starting pitching in Korea.

Darvish, on the other hand, has good memories. Of course, Darvish also met a long time ago at the WBC in 2009, but the Korean line-up did not find Darvish too difficult. In the 2009 WBC 1st round group 1st place match, Darvish took the mound as a midfielder and recorded 1 inning, 1 hit, 1 walk, 3 strikeouts and no runs. Later, in the second game of the second round, Darvish recorded 3 runs (2 earned runs) with 4 hits, 1 walk, 7 strikeouts in 5 innings against Korea. Darvish recorded a defeat. And in the final, Korea attacked Darvish in the 9th inning, trailing by 2-3, to tie the game 3-3. I gave Darvish a blown save. However, Korea lost a run in the 10th inning, and Darvish overcame the blown save to become the winning pitcher.

The former WBC national team, which is evaluated as the strongest power of all time. In Japan, prospects are mixed and attention is focused on who will be the starting pitcher for the game against Korea.