Shohei Ohtani spent five seasons with the Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters before leaving for Major League Baseball in 2018.

His final year in Japan, however, was far from smooth.

In February 2017, Ohtani suffered an ankle injury that forced him to withdraw from the World Baseball Classic, an opportunity he had deeply hoped to experience. Just a few months later, he was sidelined again with a hamstring injury in April.

The setbacks limited his playing time throughout the season, and the Fighters struggled as a team, finishing fifth in the Pacific League.

Looking back, Ohtani later admitted that the most difficult part was not the physical pain, but the feeling that he had let his team and fans down.

Because of those injuries, there was uncertainty about whether he would even appear in the Fighters’ final home game of the season.

But on October 4, 2017, Ohtani took the field at the Sapporo Dome in what would likely be his last appearance in Japan.

He was listed in the lineup as “No.4 hitter and starting pitcher.”

Standing on the mound that night, he carried a clear determination.

“I thought it might be my last game here,” he said later.

“I had no intention of letting anyone reach base—and no intention of letting anyone score.”

It was not simply about winning the game.

It was about showing everything he had built during his five years in Japan, and making sure his final performance would not end in disappointment.

That night, Ohtani delivered exactly that.

He threw a complete-game shutout, allowing only two hits while striking out ten batters across 124 pitches.

Although injuries had limited his season, the performance reminded everyone of the extraordinary talent that had defined his time in Japan.

And it gave the fans one final glimpse of the player who had redefined what a two-way star could be.

Source

This quote comes from a Japanese book published in Japan and is not currently available in English.

Opening a Path, Crossing the Ocean: The True Story of Shohei Ohtani, p.244