The Yomiuri Giants' No. 4 hitter has special meaning. Having been handled by only superstars representing Japanese professional baseball, including Shigeo Nagashima, Wang Jeong-hee (O Sadaharu), and Hiromitsu Ochiai, the Yomiuri Giants' No. 4 hitter has a symbolic meaning as the center of Japan's most prestigious baseball team.
The player who is currently in charge of Yomiuri's No. 4 through numerous players is the captain, Kazuma Okamoto (27). Okamoto, a franchise star who has been playing only in Yomiuri's uniforms since his debut in the first division in 2015, is a "self-produced" power heater created by Yomiuri for the first time in a long time.
This Okamoto has made a mark in Yomiuri's history.
Okamoto hit a tiebreaking two-run home run over the left fence by hitting a 153km fastball that came into the middle of the third pitch in the top of the eighth inning with no outs against Yokohama bullpen pitcher Rowan Wick in the top of the eighth inning when his team was being dragged 2-4 at Yokohama Stadium on the 27th. It was Okamoto's 13th home run of the season. Although the team lost 4-5 in the bottom of the ninth inning by giving up a finishing run, Okamoto's home run was a big one in Yomiuri's history.
It was Okamoto's 219th career homerun and his 200th in the fourth batting order. He hit 200 home runs as the fourth batter in the history of Japanese pro baseball, but Okamoto became the fourth among the Yomiuri Giants after Wang Jung-kook (392), Nagashima (314), and Tatsunori Hara (255).
In particular, Okamoto recorded 200 home runs in the fourth batting order at the age of 27 years and 11 months, the third-youngest record ever, following Kazuhiro Kiyohara (Seibu, 26 years and 11 months) in 1994 and Jang Hoon (Doei, 27 years and 3 months) in 1967. However, this is also the team's youngest record to shorten Nagashima's 32 years and 5 months by a large margin, if narrowed down to "Yomiuri's No. 4 hitter."토토사이트 순위
Okamoto, who has been a regular player since 2018 and has recorded 30 home runs for six consecutive years until last year, has a batting average of 0.262 with 13 homers and 39 RBIs amid extreme pitching and batting. He ranks second in home runs and total hits (122) in the Central League and first in RBIs.
Okamoto said after the game, "It's still a long way off compared to those who achieved 200 home runs, but I want to continue to try to hit (home runs) in the future," adding, "I want to try to accomplish it because it's natural (to carry Yomiuri's No. 4)."