Fighters pitcher Seigi Tanaka got the first save of his career last Wednesday. Tanaka was the first round pick of the Hawks in the 2016 draft* and had spent six injury plagued years with them before moving to the Fighters over the winter as compensation for the Hawks signing Kensuke Kondoh. His chronic elbow and shoulder injuries (which he appeared to have also missed time for in both high school and college) limited him to just 36 innings in 34 appearances during his tenure with Softbank. It's been a tough road for him and he got very emotional during his Hero Of The Game interview.
*Tanaka was picked by five teams in the draft - the Marines, Hawks, Carp, Fighters and Giants. After Softbank won the lottery for him, all four losing teams (along with DeNA who had lost out on Yuya Yanagi) selected Chihaya Sasaski with Lotte winning his lottery.
Here's a card of Tanaka from the 2017 BBM Icons - Japan Pride set (#04). That year's set, which came out around the time of the 2017 World Baseball Classic, featured players who had played for Samurai Japan at some level - Tanaka had played on the collegiate version of the team in both 2014 and 2015.
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