On March 3 at Kyocera Dome in Osaka, Japan. The Korean World Baseball Classic (WBC) national team and Japan NPB Orix Buffaloes held an official WBC exhibition game. The Korean WBC team beat Orix 8-5. But in the late innings a unfamiliar pitcher wearing the Korean WBC team uniform took the mound. There was no jersey number.
Yu Young-chan, who had pitched in the eighth inning, was replaced after throwing more than 30 pitches with two outs, and Japanese pitcher Ishii Kogi entered to finish the inning. Leading 8-5, in the ninth Japanese pitcher Kobayashi Tatsuto came in and finished the game with one scoreless inning, throwing a fastball that topped out at 150 km/h.
The national team had a limited number of pitchers available that day. In case of emergency, the tournament organizers put in a pitcher from a Japanese independent league who had been prepared as a reserve player. Ishii and Kobayashi were both players for the Tokushima Indigo Socks of the Shikoku Island League, a Japanese independent league.
Kobayashi, who recorded a save in an exhibition against a Japanese professional team while wearing the Korean WBC team uniform, will wear the NPB SoftBank Hawks uniform. SoftBank announced on the 20th that it had signed pitcher Kobayashi Tatsuto, who plays for the Tokushima Indigo Socks, as a developmental player.
Kobayashi was drafted by the Hiroshima Toyo Carp in the 2020 draft. He made his first-team debut in 2021 and posted a career 2 appearances (4 2/3 innings) with a 9.64 earned run average. He suffered an elbow fatigue fracture in 2022, underwent surgery in 2023 and spent time rehabilitating, after which he played in the second team. Last year he posted a 4.78 ERA in 27 second-team appearances and was notified of his release after the season.
This year he played in the Tokushima independent league, recording 7 appearances (27 innings), 3 wins and 1 loss, a 2.33 ERA, 34 strikeouts and 7 walks. His fastball velocity increased to as high as 154 km/h.
SoftBank has had many setbacks in its pitching staff with Uezawa, Moinello and Fujii struggling or injured. Although they won last year's Japan Series, this year they sit fourth in the Pacific League. SoftBank manager Kokubo Hiroki said on the 20th that he had not seen Kobayashi in person and that for now he would watch him pitch in the second team.
SoftBank held a press conference for Kobayashi on the 21st at Fukuoka PayPay Dome. Kobayashi said he felt frustrated during his time with Hiroshima because he spent a long period unable to play due to injury and surgery, but after being released he played in the independent league and wanted to play in NPB again. He said he was happy about the opportunity.
On the 20th Kobayashi, through the Tokushima club, said that being stimulated by the strong desire of those around him in Tokushima to go to NPB helped him grow in many ways. Although it was a short three-month period, he was glad to be able to return to NPB and said he would do his best to become an official player.
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