He was the
Orix Buffaloes' 3rd round pick in the 2008 NPB professional draft. He went on a roll and pitched undefeated in his next 3 outings, securing his 4th win by May 8 against the Marines. His winning streak ended there however, and he didn't manage another win until June 4. He caught the flu the day before his next outing, and assigning the newly acquired pitcher Evan MacLane as his replacement put an end to Orix's seven-game winning streak. He was severely scolded for not taking better care of himself, and was removed from the roster by team manager Akinobu Okada as punishment. He was called back on July 1 and pitched 3 innings in relief to record his first career save. He then alternated as a starter and reliever in the following weeks, and on August 11, he pitched his first complete game while giving up only a single run. But after acquiring 2 consecutive losses within 3 days in October, he was again removed from the roster. Two weeks later, he earned his last win in his final outing, and finished the season with 10-7 and a 3.03 ERA from 25 games.
2012 His jersey number got changed to 21 before the season started, and he stopped the Buffaloes' 3-game losing streak since the season opener when he won his first outing against the Fighters on April 3. Together with Chihiro Kaneko and Hayato Terahara, they formed the team's main starters. In July, he also got voted into his first All-Star game where he relieved Yuki Saito in the 4th inning of Game 1 and retired Yoshinobu Takahashi. He continued to pitch well afterwards, but was removed from the rotation on August 9 when he experienced pain in his pitching arm. He returned two months later and threw a no-hitter against the Softbank Hawks on October 8, fanning nine and allowing only one baserunner (a walk to Nobuhiko Matsunaka in the 5th). He was the 76th NPB hurler and 26th in the Pacific League to throw a no-no, the first since Narciso Elvira in 2000. He was only the second NPB hurler to throw a no-hitter on the last day of the season and the first in NPB's 64 years of being a two-league format; Mitsuhiko Ishida had done it in the spring 1937 season. He finished the season with 8-3 and 2.78 ERA, and topped the team in wins.
2013 He appeared in a personal high of 28 games, and finished with 9-8 and a 3.63 ERA in 166 innings. His 9 wins included winning 3 complete games.
2014 He started the season in top form and won all of his 8 starts by May 20. He lost his next start by giving up a single run to the Dragons, and lost a couple more after, but by July 8, he already racked up 11 wins. This got him the top vote for the All-star game starting pitchers for the Pacific League team. From August however, his pitching fell into a slump and he lost 5 consecutive starts. He finished with 12-10 and 3.29 ERA in 24 starts. He also pitched in the post-season PL playoffs and in the
Nichibei series where Japan won by 3–2–0. In game 3, he struck out four with one walk over two innings, and became part of a four-man combined effort to pitch a no-hitter against MLB all-stars who suffered their third straight loss.
2015 His lackluster pitching continued into 2015 where he could not manage to secure a win in his first 6 starts. To make matters worse, he had another episode of facial paralysis prior to his start on April 28 so he had to be replaced. He returned to the mound on May 10 to notch his first victory of the season against the Fighters, a feat that he hasn't managed since he last won on August 1, 2014. Things turned around for him eventually, and he managed to rack up 10 wins until the season ended. He also made it into another All-Star game. Despite his shaky season start and not recording more wins, he topped the league in
quality start percentage (83.3%) and finished 2nd in ERA with 2.38 (0.14 behind Shohei Ohtani). During post-season, was again selected to play for the national team for the
2015 WBSC Premier12 where he recorded the 1 win in 2 games. Afterwards, he received a 25 million yen pay raise and became the youngest ever Buffaloes hurler to reach a salary of 100 million yen at 25 years old. He managed a brief comeback in June where he won 4 games straight, and won a couple more afterwards to finish the season with 10–12, and a career-low ERA of 4.14 out of 26 appearances. Despite giving away only 4 home runs and having the most wins amongst the team's pitchers, he also topped the league in losses with 12 and recorded a career worst of 48 walks.
2017 He started strong in 2017 where he went the distance against the Fighters on April 9, and threw a 154 pitch effort to record the season's first shutout win among all NPB hurlers. This was also his career first shutout win against the Fighters. He recorded another win afterwards, but then he went on a 3-game losing streak late in April. On top of that, he experienced pain in his left ankle early in May which got him removed from the starting roster. He returned in June, and gathered 4 more wins until his left wrist was hit and fractured by a batted liner during the August 22 game against the Fighters. He was once more removed from the roster to undergo treatment and rehab, and his season ended with 5-6 and a 3.44 ERA in 17 games.
2018 This was his first year to start the season opening game on March 30 against Softbank. Despite pitching 7 scoreless innings, he gave away 2 runs in the 8th and earned his first loss when the game ended at 0–2. He pitched a lot of quality starts in succeeding games, but failed to get wins for lack of run support. He recorded 3 straight wins in June but went on a 4-game losing streak afterwards. In spite of this, he was the only starter in the team who managed to remain in the roster all throughout the season. He finished with 10-13 and a 3.60 ERA. ==Domestic free agency==