KYODO NEWS - Oct 4, 2017 - 21:45 | Sports

Shohei Otani's fastball was hardly larger-than-life on Wednesday, but that mattered little to the crowd who came to see what is likely his final home game for the Nippon Ham Fighters.

Otani went 1-for-4 as the first starting pitcher in recent memory to bat cleanup, while striking out 10 in a 3-0 shutout of the Pacific League rival Orix Buffaloes.

Making just his fifth start in an injury-hit season, the Fighters' slugging ace pitcher once more demonstrated that his fastball is not in mid-season form.

Otani's velocity has been there all season, and his fastball had more life Wednesday than it has all year, but it has not been the swing-and-miss pitch it was in his first four seasons. On the other hand, his slider continued to turn heads and miss bats with representatives of 12 major league teams watching from behind above home plate.

And even though it was not a vintage performance, the face of the Fighters did not disappoint the fans who came to see him off.

"He has an instinct for the game, he's got something special," said 63-year-old Yasuhiko Koiwa, who came from Asahikawa in central Hokkaido to see the game.

"This may be the last time we see this in Japan, but I always had hopes he would make it as both a pitcher and cleanup hitter."

Otani's opponent was Orix ace and former Sawamura Award winner Chihiro Kaneko.

"It's possible that this is the last time," Kaneko said of facing Otani. "If he was going to get a hit off me, I wanted it be against me pitching as well as I could rather than trying to do something differently."

The Fighters have two more games, one on Thursday when Otani will likely have the day off following his start, and again on Monday in Sendai, when he should return to the batting order for the final time before beginning his career in the United States.

==Kyodo