Where did they get this kind of foreign batter.
Yomiuri Giants outfielder Elijah Hernandez (30) hit three more hits. At an away game against the Yakult Swallows held at Meiji Jingu Stadium in Tokyo on Saturday, he played as third baseman and posted hits in the 1, 7th and 9th innings. He even scored runs on all three occasions when he got on base with hits.
He joined the team in late May and had six three-hit games in 29 games. Yoshihiro Maru had seven three-hit games, the most in his team, in 74 games, and is only one kick. It is hard to imagine a Yomiuri Giants batting line without Hernandez these days.
He hit his first at-bat in the top of the first inning with runners on the first and third bases with no outs. He hit a timely hit against Yakult right-hander Yasuhiro Ogawa. He hit a fastball that was high at first pitch. He garnered a 10-to-3 victory in the first round. “I tried to hit the ball aggressively as the runner was in the scoring position,” he said in an interview after the game.
The Yomiuri Giants’ No. 1 floor, No. 2 Naoki Yoshikawa, and No. 3 Hernandez hit consecutive hits to bring the mood to life. With the bases loaded with one outs, he added one more run by hitting an infield grounder. With runners on the second and third bases with two outs, No. 7 Yukinori Kishida hit a timely two-run homer. 4-0.
Hernandez served as the catalyst for the bulk of the scoring.
He hit a double to center field in his fourth at-bat in the seventh inning. He hit the first pitch thrown by right-hander Daichi Ishiyama, the second pitcher of the Yakult team. He didn’t let go of the slider that was pushed to the center. Takumi Oshiro, the fifth player, brought home Hernandez with a hit to the left.
At the last batter’s box in the ninth inning, he hit left-handed. Right-handed pitcher Shimizu Novoru of Yakult hit a cut fastball at the second pitch. He faced off all three Yakult pitchers and garnered hits. Yomiuri added three more runs in the top of the ninth inning to seal the victory with a 7-3 lead.
In the first interleague game against the Softbank Hawk at Tokyo Dome on May 28, he started as No. 7 right fielder. He reported his first hit at bat, and struck out two consecutive times at bat. The next day, he struck out two and had one hit as No. 2. On the last day of the three consecutive games, he made a cool hit. He hit a three-run homerun with runners on the first and second bases with one out in the bottom of the third inning when his team was losing 1-5. It was his first homerun that became a stepping stone for his team to come from behind to win the game 6-5.
Three consecutive games against the Seibu Lions began on May 31. They had two hits on the first day. They had multiple hits for the first time in four games. They had one hit on June 1 and the first three hits on June 2.
He produces hits almost every game nonstop. He has had hits in 26 out of 29 games. He has had hits in 15 consecutive games since the away game against the Rakuten Eagles on June 13.
All indicators of attack seem to say that Hernandez is currently the best hitter in the Central League.
As of Tuesday, he had 42 hits in 117 times at bat with a batting average of 359-5 homers and 18 RBIs. His on-base plus slugging percentage (OPS) is 0.943 and his batting average in scoring areas is 364. He had a batting average of 352 (31 hits in 88 times at bat) in June. He also topped the batting average in the Central League.
Hernandez overcame the super-powerful “go-taser.”
Until Hernandez came, Yomiuri played the season without a foreign hitter. Outfielder Rougned Odor, who was expected to be the center hitter, left the team just before the opening. When he was excluded from the opening team entry, he chose to leave.
Odor, who played for the Venezuelan national team, was a teammate of Kim Ha-sung’s San Diego Padres last year. He played in 59 games and posted a batting average of 230, four home runs and 18 RBIs. He posted a batting average of 230-178 home runs and 568 RBIs in 1,154 games in the Major League. He hit double-digit homers for eight consecutive years from 2015 to 2022.
Hernandez will be paid 50 million yen (about 430 million won) this year. This is one fourth of Odor’s 200 million yen (about 1.62 billion won) contract. A Dominican Republic national, Hernandez has a very low career in the Major League. He only played in 14 games for the Texas Rangers in 2022. He has a batting average of 182, six hits and three RBIs without a home run.
He has displayed potential in the Minor League. He played in 137 Triple-A games last year and posted a batting average of 298-18 home runs and 99 RBIs. Before moving to the Yomiuri Giants, he played in 20 games and posted 289-2 home runs and 10 RBIs.
For him, Japan was a window into a new world.
Yomiuri Hernandez, who was embarrassed by the departure of foreign batters, is a savior-like player. Yomiuri has a team batting average of 2.37 percent. It is said that without Enandes, Yomiuri would have fallen to the bottom.
The Yomiuri Giants are in third place, two games behind Hiroshima who is ranked first. The Central League is in fierce competition with the Hiroshima, Yokohama BayStars, Yomiuri and Hanshin Tigers. The teams ranking first to fourth have only three games to play. 여우알바
