8月7日（金）、7月度の「日本生命月間MVP」が発表され、リック・バンデンハーク投手がパ・リーグ投手部門で選出されました。初受賞です。
バンデンハーク投手は7月度5試合に登板し、リーグトップタイの3勝をマーク。3勝をあげた規定投球回以上の投手のうち唯一の無敗で、投球回、奪三振はリーグ最多、防御率はリーグ3位でした。9日のイーグルス戦（6回無失点）、24日のバファローズ戦（7回1失点）、31日のライオンズ戦（6回2失点）で勝利投手となったほか、2日のライオンズ戦でも8回3失点の好投を見せるなど、チームの首位固め、月間最高勝率（.765＝13勝4敗）に貢献しました。
入団1年目での月間MVP受賞は、ホークスでは1996年6月度ホセ、1999年6月度ペドラザ、2003年7月度新垣に次ぎ、4人目となります。
また、31日のライオンズ戦の勝利で5勝0敗。先発で来日から無傷の5連勝はホークス球団外国人投手の新記録です。
会見でバンデンハーク投手は「とても光栄です。嬉しく思いますが、それ以上に自分が投げた試合でチームが勝てたことが良かったと思います」と笑顔を浮かべました。ここまで45投球回で61奪三振のハイペースです。しかし、本人は「いかに少ない球数で抑えるか、そして長い回を投げるかを大事に考えています。だから三振でも、ゴロでもフライでもあまり意識はしていません」と言います。また、暑い夏を乗り切るコンディション対策を問われると、「妻が健康に良い食事をたくさん作ってくれるのでそれを食べて、あとは涼しいところにいることかな」と白い歯をのぞかせました。
A thank i’m honored you know honored with winning this award um it feels it feels very good um and i’m happy that we were able to to win that many games you know that’s the most important thing to me is that i can put the team in a position
To win the game and i was able to do that and that makes me that makes me very happy foreign yeah it’s great you know like i said i the mindset is the same when i go into the game i want to give the team a chance to win
To win the game and when you go out there and you’re able to do that you know that’s a that’s a very good feeling a very satisfying feeling for for for me so um yes i’m i’m very happy with that foreign you know strikeouts that that’s that’s just this statistic
Um if i would have the same results with zero strikeouts i would be very happy as well you know strikeouts everybody knows get the pitch count up very high so of course it’s a satisfying feeling for a pitcher to get a strikeout um you know on the other hand you know
You have to throw a lot of pitches so uh it’s a it’s a two-way thing but um you know the most important thing is that uh you know we get you get outs as a pitcher as quick as possible and if that’s a strikeout or a ground ball or fly ball you know
Either way um just retire the hitter as soon as possible foreign yeah yeah that’s that’s great you know i’m very happy with that um we are on top of the division um and that’s a that’s a very good feeling so um you know we we continue to prepare
And work hard every every day to win the game and when i’m on the mound you know that’s that’s what we’re trying to accomplish so i’m very very happy with that uh statistics foreign yeah of course i prepare for that stuff um you know my wife makes good food for me and
Uh she makes a healthy food so i can stay healthy and i get a lot of nutrients in my body you know so um other than that you know you just take your rest and you listen to your body make sure you know it’s going to tell
You how you feel and you just respond to that so i just try to listen to my body as good as possible and try to stay cool and recover you know recovery is key and uh you know i try to play off that sort of foreign win the championship you know that’s
What’s the main goal is i just you know want to take the opportunity to thank my teammates you know that they are the one that that play hard for me that swing their bats they play great defense and we have this tremendous bullpen you know that that comes in and and yeah pitches
So so well and um you know i want to i want to thank them for for helping me accomplish this you know i know i’m sitting up here by myself but uh you know all my teammates deserve that as well so imagine foreign all right thank you
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