Japan Competition" repeats the championship drama from 2 years ago. Softbank Eagle and Yokohama DeNA announce G1 starters

The 2026 Japan Competition starts tomorrow, and the defending champion SoftBank Eagles will meet Yokohama DeNA to repeat the championship drama from 2 years ago. SoftBank announced that the G1 starter will be star right-hander Naoyuki Uesawa, facing off against Yokohama right-hander Yutaro Ishida.

This year's Japan Series format is "2-3-2". Yokohama DeNA, which belongs to the Central League, has a home advantage of 4 games. This also means that pitchers must be on the field to hit in the first two games and the last two games of the series.

Naoyuki Uesawa, a 32-year-old right-hand pitcher who once played for the Red Sox in the United States, started 22 games this season and posted a record of 10 wins and 4 losses with an ERA of 2.39. He made 16 high-quality starts and pitched a total of 135.1 innings with 129 strikeouts. His batting average was 0.234 and his WHIP per inning was 1.12. His fastest throw this year was 154 kilometers.

Naoyuki Uesawa faced Nippon Ham in the final round of the Pacific League climax series and surrendered 2 points in 6 games.

The 24-year-old Yutaro Ishida started 20 games in the regular season this season and shutout 1 of them. He has a record of 5 wins and 8 losses, an ERA of 2.91, and a total of 120.2 innings with 117 strikeouts, a batting average of 0.247, and a WHIP of 1.15.

SoftBank supervisor Yuki Kokubo said that Naoyuki Uesawa is also the starting pitcher in the opening game of this year's season. "The most important thing is to be able to steadily control the game. This is the most important thing in a short-term decisive battle."

This is the third consecutive year that SoftBank has entered the Japanese competition. However, in 2024, it was reversed by the Yokohama team. In the final series, it lost 2 wins and 4 losses and missed the "Japan 1". This year, the two sides faced off again in the Japanese competition.