Murakami and Aoyagi should win the Triple Crown… Chunichi’s right-hand man Se approaches the batting king with incredible numbers | Full Count

Hanshin and Aoyagi will win three pitchers, and the most saves will be a close battle

September is over and there are about two weeks left in the season. While attention is focused on the battle for victory and progression to the Climax Series, the fierce battle for the title cannot be overlooked. Here I would like to see the results of Central League players.

In the batting division, Yakult infielder Munetaka Murakami leads the triple crown in batting average, home run and RBI. In terms of home runs, he has a “double scoring” difference with giant infielder Kazuma Okamoto at second. Until the end of August, the battle for the top hitter was in a state of confusion, but he improved his condition and escaped immediately, such as hitting 5 home runs in a row, which is a record professional baseball. If he wins the Triple Crown, it will be the first time in 18 years since Nobuhiko Matsunaka (Daiei) in 2004. Hit count is also in second place, two behind Hanshin outfielder Koji Chikamoto.

Chikamoto has the most stolen bases with 27. In 2019 and 2020, he was the king of base stealing, and if that continues, it will be the third time. Last year, infielder Takumu Nakano became the stealing king, and will Hanshin produce the stealing king for the fourth year in a row?

In the pitching category, pitcher Hanshin Akihiro Aoyagi won the triple crown in terms of ERA, number of wins and winning percentage. However, in September he was struggling with 5 goals in 6 innings in 2 games. Giant pitcher Shosei Togo is chasing the number of wins by one.

Togo leads with 136 strikeouts. High strikeout Chunichi’s Hiroto Takahashi and Hiroshima pitcher Masahito Morishita are second with 127 strikeouts. Hiroshi Takahashi is the only pitcher with 100+ innings with a 10+ strikeout rating, chasing Togo, which has a 50+ inning difference, by nine.

Yakult’s Scott McGuff is the leading pitcher with 36 saves, but Chunichi’s Rydell Martinez throws 34, DeNA Yasuaki Yamazaki has 33, and pitchers from the Giants and Odaito have a close battle with 32. There’s plenty of room for the change.