Hanshin Tigers relief pitcher Daichi Ishii entered today's game in the eighth inning against the Giants and didn't give up a run. It was Ishii's 40th appearance in a row in which he didn't allow a run, which broke the old record of 39 that was set by Kaima Taira of the Lions in 2021.
Ishii's route to the Tigers took him through the independent Shikoku Island League as he joined the Kochi Fighting Dogs in 2018 after graduating from high school. Players who join an independent (or corporate) league team out of high school have to wait three years before they can enter the NPB draft (college players only have to wait two years) so Ishii spent three years in Kochi before being drafted by Hanshin in the eighth round of the 2020 draft.
His ERA for his three years with the Fighting Dogs was 1.69 and he went 14-16 in 56 games. I think he was mostly used as a starter. He had 313 strikeouts and only 59 walks in 265 2/3 innings. He led the SIL in strikeouts in 2019 with 122. He was a member of the Shikoku Island League All Star team that played in the Can-Am League League for a few weeks in June and July of 2019 (although he did not get into the game that I went to in Little Falls, New Jersey). He went 2-2 in four starts with 35 strikeouts in 23 1/3 innings with an ERA of 3.09. He was the only pitcher on the All Stars' roster with multiple wins (the team went 7-12 overall).
All this is leading up to the fact that he is one of the few NPB players who has pre-rookie cards, or cards from before they were drafted by an NPB team. I have his card from the 2020 Kochi team set and, since I have the 2017 Kochi team set, I assume there are also 2018 and 2019 sets that he appears in. Here's his 2020 card:
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| 2020 Kochi Fighting Dogs team set #07 |
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