I'm a little late on this but last Sunday Haruto Takahashi started for the Tigers against the Carp. He threw five shutout innings, striking out seven while only giving four hit and two walks. He got the win in the Tigers' 4-0 victory.
This is significant because it was Takahashi's first start with the top team in almost three years - 1025 days to be exact. He'd missed the entire 2022 season after having Tommy John surgery and missed all of last year due to shoulder injuries. He was demoted to the team's ikusei squad after last year but pitched pretty well on the farm team this season (I saw him pitch against Hayate in Shizuoka back in May). He was re-signed to Hanshin's 70 man roster last month.
This wasn't the first time Takahashi had a significant gap in his playing time. He's pretty much struggled with injuries ever since being the Tigers' second round draft pick in 2017. He was shut down due to shoulder injuries in June of 2018 and didn't pitch again until the following season. He missed time in 2019, 2020 and 2021 with various injuries before needing TJ surgery.
I was at the game in Koshien when he beat the Giants on May 30th of 2019 for his first win with the top team in 377 days which was commemorated with an Epoch One card:
 |
| #251 |
No comments:
Post a Comment