Trey Cabbage is not trying to replace Kazuma Okamoto.

When Okamoto, the Yomiuri Giants’ star slugger, suffered an elbow injury on May 6 that will sideline him for an extended period, it left a gaping hole at the No. 4 spot in the Kyojin’s lineup.

Manager Shinnosuke Abe has used three players in the cleanup role in the 10 games since Okamoto’s injury, with Cabbage getting the vast majority of the at-bats.

The former MLB player says he does not feel any pressure in the role and that his approach has not changed.

"I go out and, no matter what spot in the lineup I'm hitting, I'm trying to get on base and help us score runs and help us win,” Cabbage told The Japan Times. “So I'm just trying to just do that: help us win games. No matter, one through nine, wherever they put me, it's the same goal."

Losing Okamoto was a massive blow to the Giants. The superstar slugger was both durable and consistent, starting at least 100 games as the No. 4 batter the last six seasons — including all 143 in 2024, when he batted .280 and hit 27 homers.

He was batting .308 with eight home runs this season before the injury.

Yomiuri has not gotten much production out of the No. 4 spot since Okamoto went down, with Cabbage, Naoki Yoshikawa and Takumi Oshiro combining to hit .114 — Cabbage has all four hits and has drawn four walks — in 10 games so far.

“No one can replace Kazuma,” Abe told reporters after a game against the Hiroshima Carp last week. “So we all have to work together.”

Cabbage, who was 2-for-3 with a walk against the Chunichi Dragons on Sunday, says everyone has to step up.

“Obviously, we love having him in the clubhouse and we love having him in the lineup every day,” Cabbage said. “But it's a team game, so everybody has got to do their part and step up and pick each other up. It's a tough loss, and we can't wait for him to come back. But we've still got to go out and do our jobs as individuals to achieve the team goal.”

Cabbage, in his first season in Japan, is batting .277 with six home runs, 15 RBIs and three stolen bases. His on-base plus slugging percentage is .807.

“Everything is a learning process,” he said. “You're going to have hot streaks and you're going to have slumps, and you've got to be able to adjust in and out to how guys are pitching you and attacking you each day. I feel like I'm making adjustments as we go, on the fly, but it's just kind of learning tendencies of teams and how they like to pitch you and certain guys and how they like to pitch you. It's just making sure you're doing your homework. Once you get out there, you've just got to go compete.”

Hit machine

Carp outfielder Sandro Fabian singled in the fourth inning of Sunday’s loss against the Hanshin Tigers to stretch his hitting streak to 16 games.

Fabian, who is in his first NPB season, leads all batters with a .329 average and has four home runs and 20 RBIs.

He began his streak with a 2-for-4 night against the Giants on April 30. Fabian has recorded multiple hits in 10 of the 16 games during his run.

That's a relief

Veteran Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters reliever Naoki Miyanishi made history when he entered Thursday’s game against the Orix Buffaloes in the seventh inning.

It was Miyanishi’s 880th consecutive relief appearance, which set a new NPB record. The previous mark was held by former Dragons closer Hitoki Iwase.

“It’s not only my record, I hope everyone can celebrate this,” Miyanishi told the fans after the game.

Miyanishi entered a scoreless contest with two outs in the seventh inning. The Buffaloes had a runner on third and Ryoma Nishikawa, who was batting .306, at the plate. The left-hander got Nishikawa to ground out to second and pumped his fist after getting out of the inning.

The Fighters took the lead in the bottom half on the way to a 7-0 victory, with Miyanishi getting the win on his record-setting night.

He extended the mark to 881 consecutive relief appearances with a scoreless inning against the Chiba Lotte Marines on Sunday.

In terms of overall appearances, Miyanishi is fourth on the career list behind Iwase (1,002), Tetsuya Yoneda (949) and Masaichi Kaneda (945).

Miyanishi is NPB’s career leader in holds, with 418.

Trading places

Regular-season trades are rare in Japanese baseball — there were two last season — so when the Giants traded Yuto Akihiro and pitcher Ryusei Ohe to the Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks for Richard Sunagawa to start last week, it was a surprise development.

Sunagawa and Akihiro, a pair of young hitters who have so far fallen short of high expectations, were the main pieces of the deal.

Sunagawa has led the Western League in home runs the past five seasons, but has not managed to stick with the top team. He entered the season with a .165 average and 10 homers in 260 NPB at-bats.

Akihiro, meanwhile, was touted as the potential next coming of Hideki Matsui, even receiving the legend’s No. 55 jersey. He showed plenty of promise in 2023 when he hit .273 with 10 home runs in 406 at-bats. He had a slow start to 2024 at the plate and also had some tough days in the field. He began this season in the minors and had one hit in seven at-bats before the trade.

Sunagawa made his debut for the Giants against the Carp on May 13 and homered in his second at-bat. On Sunday, he connected on a come-from-behind three-run blast that gave the Giants a two-run lead over the Dragons in the fifth inning.

Sunagawa is 3-for-15 with a pair of home runs in five games with Yomiuri.

Akihiro has appeared in four games for SoftBank and has three hits in 12 at-bats.