Murakami Munetaka (24), the fourth batter of the Yakult Swallows in the Japanese pro baseball, talked about his second attempt to win three home runs before this season. He vowed to take a leap forward, recalling the year 2022 when he won three home runs, three home runs, and RBIs. Murakami hit 56 home runs two years ago, setting a new record for most home runs in a season as a Japanese player, surpassing Sadaharu O (Wang Jung-kook, chairman of the Softbank Hawks). He set a dramatic milestone. After suffering from a severe slump, he hit his 56th home run in the pennant race against the Yokohama BayStars. He hit a batting average of 318 with 134 RBIs, becoming the youngest player to win three home runs at age 22. His team has also topped the Central League for the second consecutive year.
Naturally, he was named the MVP. In the winter of that year, he signed a three-year contract worth 1.8 billion yen and an annual salary of 600 million yen. Even though he was not a free agent, he signed an unusual multi-year contract. Rumors have it that he will advance to the Major League through the posting system at the end of 2025, when his three-year contract ends.
However, he failed to continue his reputation as a best hitter last year. He struggled in the Japanese national team at the World Baseball Classic. Due to a severe slump, he gave up the fourth inning to Masataka Yoshida (31) of the Boston Red Sox, and went down to the fifth inning.
He also slowed down in the regular season. He played in 140 games with a batting average of 256, 31 homers and 84 RBIs. He hit 30 home runs for the third consecutive year, but failed to become the home run king for the third consecutive year. Kazuma Okamoto of the Yomiuri Giants won his third home run king title.
In the 2024 season, which started on a new day, the atmosphere flows strangely.
At the match against the Yomiuri Giants held at Meiji Jingu Stadium in Tokyo on Sunday local time, Murakami played as the fourth-3rd baseman, and had no hit in three times at bat. He was out after hitting a fly ball to center field in his first at bat in the bottom of the second inning against Tomoyuki Sugano, the Yomiuri Giants’ returning ace. He hit a well-hit ball.
He walked a base in the bottom of the fourth inning, and struck out swinging and missing in the bottom of the sixth inning. He grounded out to the second base in his fourth at bat in the bottom of the eighth inning.
Yakult, whose main gun remained silent, suffered a 0-5 loss. It is the first loss of the season. Yakult is in last place, 0.5 game behind the Hanshin Tigers. It has lost six games in the last seven games.
Since the opening game, Murakami has hit 10 consecutive games and 45 consecutive at-bats without homers. Japanese media reported that Murakami had the most consecutive at-bats without homers since the opening game.
His batting average for this season fell to .25 (eight hits in 32 times at bat). There is one thing that stands out. Out of the eight hits, he only hit a double. Oh
He has no RBIs so far. From the match against the Hiroshima Carp on April 4 to the Yomiuri Giants on April 11, he recorded two hits in 16 at-bats for a total of 125 percent in six games.
7th season in the professional league. Not a bad start. 3 hits in the opening game against the Chunichi Dragons on March 29. Hit 4 consecutive games.
But the pace keeps dropping. 고소득알바
Yakult coach Takatsu Shingo urged the center hitter to make more efforts, saying, “Murakami needs to hit to score points.”
As of Tuesday, Seiya Hosokawa of the Chunichi Dragons and Shota Morisita of Hanshin both hit three home runs, ranking first in this category. Yakult has three home runs on his team. Murakami is ranking second in on-base percentage (0.467), following Okamoto (0.500).