Gunji will be the No. 4 batter in next season’s opening game! What are the opening game results of Nippon-Ham ‘s No. 4 hitter over the past 10 years?
Baseball King
2025.11.23(日) 08:00
At Nippon-Ham’ fan appreciation event “F FES2025” held at ES CON FIELD on the 22nd, manager Tsuyoshi Shinjo announced, “I’d like to announce the fourth batter. Gunji will be the fourth batter, third baseman Gunji,” naming Yuya Gunji as the fourth batter for next season’s opening game.
In response, Gunji declared, “I’m Gunji, the 4th third number 3. I will definitely hit so that I don’t lose out on my name,” he declared. Gunji has played in 111 games this season, 35 of them at No. 4, and has a .347 batting average.
Incidentally, if you look at the last 10 years Nippon-Ham of the opening game of the season hitter, Sho Nakata, who retired Chunichi at the end of this season, has been the most frequent six times. in 1919, in the opening game against Orix, Teru Iwamoto pitched fastball a 3-3 10th inning walk-off grand slam into the left field stands. Pacific League He was the third “walk-off grand slam of the opening game,” following Tsutomu Ito in 1994 and Alex in 2005.
Looking at the opening day cleanup hitter since manager Tsuyoshi Shinjo took over in 2022, Go Matsumoto was in 2022, Yuki Nomura in 2023 and 2025, and Martinez in 2024, but only Go Matsumoto in 2022 managed to get hit. Since 2023, no player who has been in the cleanup position in the opening game has managed to get hit.
It will be interesting to see if Gunji can hit hit in next year’s opening game, the first time the team has done so in four years since Go Matsumoto.
▼ Performance of opening cleanup hitter over the past 10 years
2016 “4th batter/ first baseman” Sho Nakata 0 At Bat 4 hit
2017 “4th batter/ first baseman” Sho Nakata 0 At Bat 4 hit
2018 “4th batter/ first baseman” Sho Nakata 0 At Bat 3 hit
2019 “4th batter/ first baseman” Sho Nakata 1 hit At Bat, 1 Home Run 4 RBI
2020 『4th batter/ first baseman』Sho Nakata 1 At Bat 4 hit
21 years 『4th batter・ first baseman』Sho Nakata 0 At Bat 3 hit
2022 “4th batter/right fielder” Go Matsumoto 2 At Bat in 4 hit
2023 “4th batter/third baseman” Yuki Nomura 0 At Bat 3 hit
24th year 『4th batter・ first baseman』Martinez 0 At Bat in 3 hit
25th year “4th batter/ first baseman “Yuki Nomura 0 At Bat in 4 hit
AloJapan.com