The season started so well for young Yusuke Ohyama. In fact, as spring training moved along, it looked more and more like this was going to be a break-out year for the second-year third baseman. Manager Tomoaki Kanemoto moved ironman Takashi Toritani over to second base (a position he hadn’t ever played in a league game) just to make room for his young blue chip. Even Samurai Japan manager Atsunori Inaba thought highly of Ohyama, adding him to a squad that played exhibition games in February and March in preliminary preparation for the 2020 Olympic Games.
Ohyama hit a home run against Yomiuri Giants ace Tomoyuki Sugano on Opening Day. Two days later (April 1), he smacked another one against Giants free agent signee Ryoma Nogami. And then… silence. No home runs for five whole months. He got sent down to the farm at one point, but despite showing signs of dominance under farm manager Akihiro Yano, he continued to struggle at the plate upon promotion.
Through the end of July, Ohyama had 35 hits in 175 at bats, good for a .200 average. He was hitting at about half that rate with runners in scoring position. Things looked completely hopeless, and Toritani started to get more playing time at the hot corner.
In limited playing time during August, Ohyama showed flashes of brilliance, collecting 12 hits in 35 at bats (.343 average), but just two of those were doubles, and none of them cleared the fences.
Enter September. The kid already has 25 hits in 55 at bats (.455), and a whopping 14 of those hits have been multi-base, including 8 long flies. That means his SLG alone is over 1.000! He even became the fifth player in team history to hit two homers in the same inning (putting him in the same company as Kazuhiro Yamauchi, Willie Kirkland, Masayuki Kakefu and Craig Brazell).
In case you missed it, Ohyama is on fire. Here’s a sample of his work:
Yep. He did all that in just one game. He hit another home run on Monday in a loss, giving him 10 on the season. Another fun fact from Sunday’s game: the Tigers had TWO nine-run innings!
Another fun fact: Shintaro Fujinami became the first NPB pitcher in 19 seasons to hit a grand slam. I know you want to see it, so here it is: