One of the batters who are having a rollercoaster-like early season in the American professional baseball major league is Masataka Yoshida (30), a Japanese outfielder for the Boston Red Sox.
Yoshida played a key role in leading Japan to win the WBC (World Baseball Classic) in March along with Shohei Ohtani (LA Angels). He swept a whopping 13 RBIs in the WBC and became the tournament RBI leader. Yoshida, who became the Pacific League batting champion in 2020 and 2021 with Orix Buffaloes in Japan, entered the major leagues ahead of this season by signing a five-year Megaton contract with the Red Sox worth 90 million dollars and about 120 billion won.
When Yoshida made a successful debut, going 2-for-4 with 1 RBI in the opening game against the Baltimore Orioles, and fired his first cannon in his fourth appearance against the Pittsburgh Pirates, it seemed like he was adjusting to the big leagues smoothly.
However, in the following 9 games, he went 3 hits in 31 at-bats and suffered an empty hit with a batting average of 0.097, and his batting average plummeted to 0.167. He even missed the starting lineup in mid-April due to a hamstring injury. At the time when criticism that it was a ‘bubble contract’ flowed out locally, Red Sox manager Alex Cora said, “I couldn’t get a hit, but the quality of the batting ball is good. Once you get a feel for it, it will explode,” he said, instilling confidence in Yoshida.
In the home game against the Minnesota Twins on the 21st of last month, Yoshida came back to life like a lie, recording 2 hits and 2 RBIs in 5 at-bats. Since then, he has continued a 16-game hitting streak until the Philadelphia Phillies on the 8th. During this period, his batting average was a whopping 0.438 (28 hits in 64 at-bats). On April 24, against the Milwaukee Brewers, he drew two arches and scored 6 RBIs, leading to a 12-5 victory.
In particular, Yoshida was named ‘Player of the Week’ for the first time as he heated up the bat with 12 hits in 25 at-bats (0.480 batting average), 2 home runs and 8 RBIs, including two or more hits in five out of six games in the first week of May. .스포츠토토
Yoshida raised his batting average from the mid-10% range to 0.321 for the season and ranked 5th in the American League batting average, and his on-base percentage and OPS (on-base percentage + slugging percentage) also entered the top 10. Homers (6) ranked 25th in the American League, RBIs (24) tied for 12th. If the current upward trend continues, it is not expected that it will be difficult to enter the top 10 in home runs and RBIs. With Yoshida’s revival, the Red Sox have been on the rise with 8 wins and 2 losses in the last 10 games. The Red Sox, who recorded 21 wins and 15 losses this season, are in 4th place in the American League East, following the Tampa Bay Rays (29 wins and 7 losses), the Baltimore Orioles (22 wins and 13 losses) and the Toronto Blue Jays (21 wins and 14 losses). However, the win rate in the American League is 5th.