JAPAN TIMES

 

SAPPORO – Since the Japan Series began last Saturday, Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters manager Hideki Kuriyama has repeatedly indicated that he wouldn’t hesitate to change the batting order on his lineup card in order to give his team the best chance to win.
And that’s what he’s done.

But there’s always been one guy penciled in the same spot in the lineup: cleanup hitter Sho Nakata. The skipper has full faith in him and has no intention of having the 27-year-old slugger batting in any other spot in the lineup.

Though he won the second RBI title of his career (110) and helped guide the team to the Pacific League pennant during the regular season, it wasn’t necessarily a satisfactory campaign for Nakata. After all, he hit .250 with 25 homers, failing to outperform his previous season’s statistics in both categories.

Two-way player Shohei Otani, who had a .322 average (though he didn’t have the minimum number of at-bats to qualify for the batting race) and 22 homers, had an impressive season as a designated hitter, and the 22-year-old occasionally stole the spotlight from Nakata.

But Kuriyama kept putting Nakata’s name in the cleanup spot. After Tuesday’s Game 3, in which the Fighters pulled ahead on Nakata’s two-run RBI double in the eighth inning and Otani hit a walk-off single in the 10th in a 4-3 victory, Kuriyama spoke about the value of having Nakata bat fourth.

“Maybe this is just how I think,” Kuriyama said. “But Sho makes me feel he has the intangible potential to do something against any pitchers, no matter how good they are. Shohei doesn’t have it yet. Sho makes us think that he could turn the table when we are not in good situations.”

Nakata, an eight-year veteran, proved Kuriyama’s words a day later in Game 4. Nippon Ham had allowed the Carp to score the game’s first run on right fielder Kensuke Kondo’s fourth-inning error, but Nakata erased the heavy mood at Sapporo Dome with a game-tying solo blast two frames later.

After the Fighters’ 3-1 win, Kuriyama called that homer “huge,” adding that it “opened the door for us.”

“You ease your team when your team’s struggling,” Kuriyama said. “That’s the job for the guys who have the main roles.”
Nakata, who has 161 career homers, also displayed leadership in Game 4. He said that everybody makes mistakes (referring to Kondo’s error) and when one someone makes one, his teammates should make it up for him.

“(Kondo’s) error was our error,” Nakata said. “I’m happy I was able to help the team (with my homer) after the play.”
In recent years, the Fighters have a tradition of requiring their cleanup guy to be just “a fourth hitter in the lineup” with situational hitting, setting the table for other hitters behind him, instead of always looking to swing for the fences.

Nakata, who’s often hit in the cleanup position for the Samurai Japan men’s national team, was frequently criticized by the team’s older players, including Atsunori Inaba, for his behavior on the field earlier in his career. But he has shown maturity and tried to not do too much as “the fourth hitter” while displaying a team-first attitude.

Reflecting on his solo homer in Game 4, Nakata said that he didn’t try to bash the ball over the wall, but instead focused on swinging the bat as best as he could.

“I don’t dwell my mind too much on hitting home runs,” said the Hiroshima native, who was 4-for-13 with four RBIs heading into Thursday’s Game 5. “If I have my own rhythm, see the ball, and swing the bat the way I want, I believe the ball naturally goes over the fence. You can’t hit a homer intending to do so.”