2023 WBC (World Baseball Classic) 4 final stroke, final tie. He directed the best moment of ‘Samurai Japan (Japan national team)’.
Munetaka Murakami (23, Yakult Swallows), who has emerged as a hero of Japanese baseball, showed pride in the major leagues and Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB), saying, “There is no difference in skill.”
Murakami returned to his team, Yakult, and did his first training session. Murakami’s training uniform, which lasted about an hour and a half, was still ‘Samurai Japan’.
In an interview with Japanese media outlets such as Nikkan Sports, he said, “Have we become the best in the world? The level and skills of Japanese baseball are different from before.” “I showed the world the power of Japanese baseball,” he emphasized.
There were only four major leaguers of the Japanese national team participating in the WBC. Considering that Masataka Yoshida (Boston Red Sox) is the first year to enter this year, there are actually three players, including Shohei Ohtani (LA Angels), Yu Darvish (San Diego Padres), and Las Nutba (St. Louis Cardinals).
The U.S. national team was all made up of major leaguers, and Mexico, their opponent in the semifinals, also had more than 20 major leaguers. This is the reason why Murakami’s words, which represent the changed Japanese baseball and are called ‘present and future’, do not sound like empty words.
Starting with the Rookie of the Year Award in 2019, Murakami won the gold medal at the 2021 Tokyo Olympics and Yakult won the Japan Series. In 2022, following the world’s first 5 home runs in a row, the youngest player to hit 150 home runs, the first pure Japanese player to hit 50 home runs in 20 years since Hideki Matsui (50 home runs) in 2002, and the most home runs (56) in a single Japanese season, making him the best player in the NPB at once. has established itself.
He was criticized by Japanese baseball fans as the fourth hitter with a batting average of less than 20%, but that regret soon turned into enthusiastic cheers. In the ninth inning of the semifinal match against Mexico, he hit 2 RBIs and a double that hit the top of the fence in mid-month in the ninth inning, and in the final game, he hit a home run that tied Meryl Kelly in the bottom of the second inning. It was literally a ‘happy ending’ that overcame setbacks and hardships.
Coach Hideki Kuriyama said,안전놀이터 “Honestly, I thought of getting Murakami to prepare a bunt. But after seeing the opponent skip the fourth hitter (Yoshida), I decided to bet. I thought that if Murakami couldn’t do it, I couldn’t win the championship.” I have recalled
Murakami thanked Ohtani and Darvish for learning techniques and training methods, and even receiving recommendations for protein supplements. “It was a great experience to be with the best players in the world,” he recalled.
Yakult will play the opening game against Hiroshima Carp on the 31st. Murakami said, “I’m a little tired,” and complained of the difficulty of adjusting to jet lag, but affirmed, “Of course, I will go to the opening game.”