When Randy Bass hit his 54th home run of the year, he thought he would have a decent shot at the Japan single-season record. With two games remaining in the 1985 season — both against the Yomiuri Giants — Bass needed two home runs ...

Keiji Obiki helped erase a four-run deficit with a come-from-behind grand slam in the second inning, and the Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters went on to rout the Fukuoka Softbank Hawks 11-5 on Thursday night at Tokyo Dome. The Fighters were behind 4-1 in the ...

Wladimir Balentien flips on the television and takes in a rare moment of relaxation. Instead of his Tokyo Yakult Swallows uniform, which will be worn later, he’s clad simply in a red T-shirt commemorating his back-to-back home run titles and yellow shorts from a ...

Wladimir Balentien took another step toward the single-season home run record, while the Tokyo Yakult Swallows dealt a blow to their opponents’ Climax Series hopes. Balentien sent the second pitch he saw from reliever Teruaki Yoshikawa over the wall in left field in the ...

The Yomiuri Giants brought back the magic and dispatched one of their toughest rivals in the process. Shuichi Murata and Yoshinobu Takahashi each went deep off Hanshin Tigers pitcher Jason Standridge, and Kyojin starter Tetsuya Utsumi kept the Tigers caged for 7 1/3 shutout ...

Ichiro Suzuki took off his helmet to reveal a head a little more salt than pepper as he bowed in appreciation of the reception he was receiving after joining an exclusive club with the 4,000th professional hit of his career between Japan and the ...

Esteban German is looking for a sign. Not one of a divine nature, but something — anything from the movement of a shoulder to the shifting of weight — that can serve as his cue to leave the safe haven of first base and ...

It doesn’t take a lot of digging to get to the root of Nyjer Morgan as a baseball player. The Yokohama BayStars outfielder practices hard, plays hard and, as a point of pride, keeps things refreshingly simple. Morgan is also usually the person having ...

The third time was the charm for Hisayoshi Chono on Saturday afternoon. After not getting the ball out of the infield in his first two at-bats, Chono connected on a come-from-behind, three-run home run in the sixth inning that helped propel the Yomiuri Giants ...

Masahiro Tanaka’s winning streak has come a long way since his loss to the Seibu Lions last season. Back on the mound where he last tasted defeat, Tanaka brought the streak around full circle, just in time to write his name in the record ...

Masahiro Tanaka figures to be one of the most intriguing NPB exports if the Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles decide to post the star right-hander after the season. It’s widely believed Tanaka will request to make the move to the major leagues, and that Rakuten ...

It was Friday morning in Japan when Detroit Tigers pitcher Max Scherzer earned his 17th win of the MLB season. As the visiting Tigers were wrapping up a 10-3 road drubbing of the Cleveland Indians, Masahiro Tanaka was an ocean away in Sendai, perhaps ...