is a Japanese professional

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each, taking turns batting and fielding. The game occurs over the course of several plays, with each play generally beginning when a player on the fielding tea ...

pitcher In baseball, the pitcher is the player who throws ("pitches") the baseball from the pitcher's mound toward the catcher to begin each play, with the goal of retiring a batter, who attempts to either make contact with the pitched ball or draw ...

for the

Chiba Lotte Marines The are a professional baseball team in Japan's Pacific League based in Chiba City, Chiba Prefecture, in the Kantō region, and owned by Lotte Holdings Co., Ltd. History The Marines franchise began in 1950 as the Mainichi Orions, an inaugural ...

in Japan's

Nippon Professional Baseball or NPB is the highest level of baseball in Japan. Locally, it is often called , meaning ''Professional Baseball''. Outside Japan, it is often just referred to as "Japanese baseball". The roots of the league can be traced back to the formation ...

Career

Amateur Days

Ishikawa did not attract attention from NPB scouts upon graduation from

Chubu University is located in Kasugai, Aichi, Japan. Chubu University was established as the Chubu Institute of Technology in 1964 with the motto "Acta, non Verba" (Actions, not Words), but its institutional history begins with the Nagoya Daichi High School e ...

in 2011 despite posting a 0.69 ERA and 1.27 ERA in the 2010 Spring and Fall seasons, respectively. He joined the industrial league team for

Tokyo Gas , founded in 1885, is the primary provider of natural gas to the main cities of Tokyo, Kanagawa, Saitama, Chiba, Ibaraki, Tochigi, Gunma, Yamanashi, and Nagano. , Tokyo Gas is the largest natural gas utility in Japan. Timeline *October 1, ...

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 The 2013 Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB) Draft was held on October 24, , for the 49th time at the Grand Prince Hotel Takanawa to assign amateur baseball players to the NPB.　It was arranged with the special cooperation of Taisho Pharmaceutic ...

, and indeed he was selected by both the

Yomiuri Giants The are a Japanese professional baseball team competing in Nippon Professional Baseball's Central League. Based in Bunkyo, Tokyo, they are one of two professional baseball teams based in Tokyo, the other being the Tokyo Yakult Swallows. They ...

and Chiba Lotte Marines with the first round draft pick. Lotte manager

Tsutomu Ito Tsutomu is a masculine Japanese given name. Possible writings ''Tsutomu can be written using different kanji characters. Here are some examples: *勉, "make effort" *務, "affairs" *務武, "affairs, warrior" *勤, "diligence" *努, "strive" The ...

selected the winning card in the subsequent lottery, and Ishikawa joined the Marines for the 2014 season.

Professional career

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. 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. 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 baseball, a quality start is a statistic for a starting pitcher defined as a game in which the pitcher completes at least six innings and permits no more than three earned runs. The quality start has effectively replaced the 'complete game' a ...

in all three games. In 2018, he selected .

Trivia

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

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ishikawa, Ayumu 1988 births Living people Chiba Lotte Marines players Japanese baseball players Nippon Professional Baseball pitchers Nippon Professional Baseball Rookie of the Year Award winners Baseball people from Toyama Prefecture 2017 World Baseball Classic players People from Uozu, Toyama