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The story
On September 28, Sporting News Japan reported that Yakult Swallows pitcher Keiji Takahashi was pulled mid-game after allowing 7 runs on just 4 hits, sparking discussion on 5ch’s Entertainment & Sports Breaking News+ board. Since Takahashi is a left-hander with experience on the Samurai Japan national team, posters had harsh words, many saying to ‘act like a pro.’ The thread grew into a broader debate about why high-school-drafted left-handed pitchers tend not to blossom into stars, and about whether Yakult currently has an ‘ace’ who can serve as a role model for younger teammates — with some naming pitcher Yamano as an ace candidate, and others countering that the bar for ‘ace’ on this team is set far too low.
7 Runs Allowed on Just 4 Hits: Fans Lose Faith in Yakult Lefty, ‘Act Like a Pro’… Despite Samurai Japan Pedigree, ‘When Did It Come to This?’
Mon, Sep 28, 5:50 AM JST
Sporting News Japan
Source: news.yahoo.co.jp / Read the original article here
What people said
Huh?
Plenty of Hanshin fans actually speak standard Tokyo dialect.
He was called a promising young prospect when they first got married…
High-school-drafted lefties basically never make it big.
Since the Heisei era, only Kazuhisa Ishii and Yusei Kikuchi have reached 100 career wins in NPB.
Kawaguchi, Kawachi, Tsujiuchi, Terajima…
Even guys hyped as the headline pick of a first-round draft lottery routinely fizzle out and vanish without a trace. And even ones like Naruse who broke out in their early twenties end up unable to win past 25, then it's the retirement track past 30 — that's the typical arc for a high-school lefty.
Not that surprising — his Japan Series outing was dominant.
He was supposed to keep improving from there.
Back then his wife was treated as his 'agemanko' (a woman believed to bring her partner good luck), but his luck ran out when he got tied down with a strange woman.
Yamano, obviously.
However you slice it.
Nah, that's just this year, isn't it?
Who knows about next year.
You can't call him an ace unless he puts up at least 7 wins consistently for a minimum of 4-5 years.
He has one decent year and suddenly he's the ace, however you slice it?
The bar for 'Yakult ace' is really low, huh.
I guess through high school, just being left-handed is already a huge advantage on its own?
>Why don't high-school lefties ever pan out?
Masa Yamamoto, Imanaka.
Of course the bar for 'ace of the Scrub-alt' (a mocking nickname mashing up Yakult with 雑魚, 'scrub') is low — they're headed for last place again this year anyway.
Ah, sorry, my bad — I meant it as an ace who can develop the younger guys and serve as a role model.
In that sense, I don't think a pitcher who just popped up out of nowhere with a low bar carries much weight.
That's just plain dumb, honestly.
By that logic, you'd have to prioritize whoever's been hot the last few games over their whole-season numbers.
If he suddenly dominated in the Japan Series, it's not the least bit strange to think he's built for the big stage in short series, and it's natural to want to bank on that.
Conversely, there have definitely been players who had great regular seasons but couldn't step up in a short series.
Six walks/HBPs — disqualified even as a batting-practice pitcher.
Somewhere like Nippon-Ham, Rakuten, or the Carp.
If only he'd gotten Tommy John surgery sooner.
For pitchers, about the only one is Darvish's ex-wife. I think Wakui's wife was in the spotlight too, but name one other pitcher who married a celebrity, kept her in the public eye, and still performed well.
Almost all of them stay out of the spotlight and support quietly from behind the scenes.
Elite ballplayers all across Japan follow this pattern, and that's the result.
Starting pitchers push their bodies so hard that they need at least four days to recover before their next start.
Matsuzaka: 'Tell me about it.'
No way a guy at Takahashi Keiji's level should be self-destructing like this.
Huh? Third-rate Takahashi has been walking and hitting batters and self-destructing in plenty of games besides the Giants ones too.
He had 6 walks/HBPs against DeNA back in July as well.
It's nothing but good outings followed by blowups, zero consistency.
Fans are already fed up with him.
I kept thinking he should just switch to relief, but that doesn't look feasible either.
Guess it's the chopping block.
I figured all of Yakult's starters were about this level, then it turns out there's a guy on another planet going 12-4 lol.
6 walks/HBPs in 3 innings.
2.2 innings, 4 hits, 4 walks, 2 hit batters, 7 runs.
Garbage.
He might break out for the first time at 30, like Hanshin's Haruto Takahashi did.
Haruto Takahashi basically missed 4 years to injury though…
Turns out Hanshin fans weren't lying when they said 'if he's ever at full health, he's unstoppable.'
Background and Key Points of the Discussion
Keiji Takahashi is a high-school-drafted left-hander who joined the Yakult Swallows as the team’s first-round pick in the 2019 draft, and he was selected for the Samurai Japan national team at the 2023 World Baseball Classic. The recurring claim in the thread that “high-school lefties rarely become stars” was based on one poster’s assertion that only Kazuhisa Ishii and Yusei Kikuchi have reached 100 career wins in NPB since the Heisei era began — worth noting this wasn’t backed by any rigorous statistical analysis. Opinion was also split, without a clear resolution, over what actually makes an “ace”: whether it should be judged on this season’s stats alone or on a multi-year track record. As for the outing itself, the line was 2.2 innings, 4 hits, 4 walks, 2 hit batters, and 7 runs allowed — suggesting hits allowed were actually low, and that control trouble from walks and hit batters was the main cause of the runs.
*This article is compiled as an excerpt and summary of the 5ch (Entertainment & Sports Breaking News+) thread “[Yakult] Fans Lose Faith in Pitcher Keiji Takahashi After 7 Runs Allowed on 4 Hits, ‘Act Like a Pro’… Despite Samurai Japan Experience, ‘When Did It Come to This?’.”
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