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Ayumu Ishikawa

Ayumu Ishikawa
Chiba Lotte Marines – No. 12
Pitcher
Born: (1988-04-11) April 11, 1988 (age 36)
Bats: Right
Throws: Right
NPB debut
March 30, 2014, for the Chiba Lotte Marines
NPB statistics
(through April 1, 2022)
Win–loss record70-58
ERA3.50
Strikeouts696
Teams
Career highlights and awards

Ayumu Ishikawa (石川 歩, Ishikawa Ayumu, born April 11, 1988) is a Japanese professional baseball pitcher for the Chiba Lotte Marines in Japan's Nippon Professional Baseball.[1]

Career

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Amateur Days

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Ishikawa did not attract attention from NPB scouts upon graduation from Chubu University in 2011 despite posting a 0.69 ERA and 1.27 ERA in the 2010 Spring and Fall seasons, respectively.[2] He joined the industrial league team for Tokyo Gas in 2011 and developed into a top prospect over his three years with the team. NPB draft observers highly rated Ishikawa's chances for being drafted early at the 2013 Nippon Professional Baseball draft, and indeed he was selected by both the Yomiuri Giants and Chiba Lotte Marines with the first round draft pick. Lotte manager Tsutomu Ito selected the winning card in the subsequent lottery, and Ishikawa joined the Marines for the 2014 season.

Professional career

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In 2014, Ishikawa began his rookie campaign in the Lotte starting rotation and made an immediate impact, throwing quality starts in 4 of his first 5 games (missing the 5th by just one out) and finishing his first professional month with 3 wins and a 1.19 ERA. His pace slowed a bit from that torrid start as the season progressed, but his season total of 10 wins, 3.43 ERA, and 1.26 WHIP led Lotte's starting rotation in all three categories.[3] He was recognized as the Pacific League Rookie of the Year in 2014.

In 2015, Ishikawa continued to shine, following up his impressive rookie season with another year with double-digit wins (12), becoming the first Lotte pitcher in 64 years to record back-to-back double digit win seasons to start his career.[4] That win total would have been even higher were it not for extremely poor run support throughout the summer months, including being on the losing end of shutout losses three times despite throwing a quality start in all three games.[5]

In 2018, he was selected to the 2018 NPB All-Star game [jp].[6]

Trivia

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Was given the nickname "Lotte's Goemon" in his rookie season, and the team sold special T-shirts with that nickname.[7]

References

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  1. ^ "Ishikawa, Ayumu". NPB.or.jp. Retrieved 13 August 2015.
  2. ^ "石川 歩（東京ガス）". draftrepo.blog47.fc2.com. Retrieved 2016-01-14.
  3. ^ "2014年度 ロッテ 投手成績 WHIPランキング". baseballdata.jp. Archived from the original on 2016-03-04. Retrieved 2016-01-14.
  4. ^ "ロッテ・石川が64年ぶり2年連続2桁勝利/デイリースポーツ online". デイリースポーツ online (in Japanese). Retrieved 2016-01-14.
  5. ^ "2015年度 石川 歩全投球成績". baseballdata.jp. Archived from the original on 2016-03-04. Retrieved 2016-01-14.
  6. ^ "マイナビオールスターゲーム2018 出場者". NPB.jp 日本野球機構 (in Japanese). July 3, 2018.
  7. ^ "石川五右衛門Ｔシャツ即日完売！追加販売へ". ちばとぴ ちばの耳より情報満載 千葉日報ウェブ. Retrieved 2016-01-14.