Jason Coskrey - The Japan Times

August 22, 2025

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Jason Coskrey

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Jason Coskrey

Jason Coskrey is a sports writer for The Japan Times. His primary focus is Japanese baseball, but he has also covered soccer, American football, boxing and basketball. He previously worked for the Marietta Daily Journal in Marietta, Ga. A native of Detroit, he is a graduate of the University of Alabama-Birmingham.

BASEBALL / Japanese Baseball / HIT AND RUN

Apr 13, 2015

Swallows pitchers off to hot start on mound this year

The Tokyo Yakult Swallows' pitchers were unlikely candidates to flirt with history, the good kind at least, when the season began March 27. Not when they were coming off a 2014 in which they posted the worst ERA in Japan among starters, relievers, and, unsurprisingly, overall as a team.

BASEBALL / Japanese Baseball

Apr 11, 2015

Taguchi passes debut test with flying colors as Giants down Swallows

If the pressure of making his NPB debut at Tokyo Dome in front of 42,870 fans got to Yomiuri Giants left-hander Kazuto Taguchi, the 19-year-old didn't let it show — on the mound or at the plate.

BASEBALL / Japanese Baseball

Apr 10, 2015

Hatakeyama's 11th-inning homer carries Swallows past Giants

There were funky uniforms on both sides, and a slew of great plays in the outfield. In the end, it was Kazuhiro Hatakeyama and the Tokyo Yakult Swallows who put their stamp on the first round of a colorful battle for Tokyo supremacy.

BASEBALL / Japanese Baseball

Apr 7, 2015

Mendoza tames Lions as Fighters stretch winning streak to six

Luis Mendoza had a hard time against the Seibu Lions in 2014. In their first meeting this year, it was Mendoza, who got a helping hand from Sho Nakata and Kensuke Tanaka, and left standing as the king of the Tokyo Jungle.

BASEBALL / Japanese Baseball / HIT AND RUN

Apr 6, 2015

Abe serves as security blanket after Giants' slow start

It seemed, on the surface at least, to be with a palpable sense of early-season panic that Shinnosuke Abe was back behind the plate for the Yomiuri Giants during their series against the Hanshin Tigers over the weekend.

BASEBALL / Japanese Baseball

Apr 5, 2015

Tigers' Gomez out for encore after good opening act

When Mauro Gomez was done hitting in the cage during batting practice on both Friday and Saturday at Tokyo Dome, where the Hanshin Tigers were taking on the rival Yomiuri Giants in a weekend series, instead of heading back to the clubhouse, he went behind the cage for a little more soft toss.

BASEBALL / Japanese Baseball

Apr 3, 2015

Tigers battery provides spark against struggling Giants

Ryutaro Umeno did most of the damage early, Randy Messenger did the heavy lifting late, and the Hanshin Tigers batterymates helped make sure their team's fans were the ones still cheering after the final out.

BASEBALL / Japanese Baseball / HIT AND RUN

Apr 3, 2015

Releasing stubborn Gourriel best move for BayStars

The lasting image of Yulieski Gourriel's 62-game tenure with the Yokohama BayStars may have come after the Cuban star's very first ichi-gun game in the team's pinstriped uniform.

BASEBALL / Japanese Baseball

Mar 27, 2015

Giants edge BayStars in 2015 season opener

Yomiuri manager Tatsunori Hara assured the media everything was all right during spring training as the Giants sputtered to six straight losses at the end of the exhibition season. The games began to count on Friday and for one night, opening night, at least, everything really was OK in Yomiuri Land....

BASEBALL / Japanese Baseball / 2015 JAPANESE BASEBALL PREVIEW

Mar 26, 2015

Buffaloes, Hawks best in PL

The second of a two-part NPB Preview.

BASEBALL / Japanese Baseball / 2015 JAPANESE BASEBALL PREVIEW

Mar 25, 2015

Carp hoping Kuroda can be final piece in title puzzle

Part of the Carp's slogan for 2015 is 'Red Rising,' and that's exactly what the club has been doing the past few years. Hiroshima has increased its win total in each of the past four seasons.

BASEBALL / Japanese Baseball / NPB NOTEBOOK

Mar 23, 2015

Cepeda hoping hard work pays off in second year in Japan

While much of the media horde tasked with covering the Yomiuri Giants has spent the spring either breathlessly reporting on every nuance of Shinnosuke Abe's transition from catcher to first base or peppering manager Tatsunori Hara about what's wrong with the club, Frederich Cepeda has been off to the...

Japan Times

BASEBALL

Mar 21, 2015

Jeter, Matsui bring star power to charity event

Hideki Matsui stepped into the batter's box for old times' sake and, with former New York Yankees teammate Derek Jeter watching, capped a special day by sending a ball over the fence and into the right-field seats at Tokyo Dome. One more home run for Godzilla on a day full of them for Tohoku.

BASEBALL / Japanese Baseball / HIT AND RUN

Mar 21, 2015

Fighters' Hermida excited about new challenge

Jeremy Hermida hit a grand slam the very first time he stepped in the batter's box in the major leagues, becoming the first player since Bill Duggleby in 1898 to achieve that particular feat. That day, Aug. 31, 2005, has been followed by a series of ups and downs, a winding career path that has led the...

Japan Times

BASEBALL

Mar 18, 2015

Jeter, Matsui team up for good cause

When Derek Jeter was asked whom he idolized growing up, he immediately mentioned Dave Winfield, saying the former Yankees player was "larger than life," and that he had a poster of Winfield in his room as a child. Then a wry smile flashed across his face.

BASEBALL / Japanese Baseball / HIT AND RUN

Mar 14, 2015

Japan still building for Premier 12, WBC

Atsunori Inaba knows a thing or two about the highs and lows of international competition.

Japan Times

BASEBALL

Mar 12, 2015

Baseball may slowly be on rise among Czechs

Among the over 100 or so media credentials issued for the two-game Global Baseball Match 2015 between Samurai Japan and Team Europe on Tuesday and Wednesday were two for Jakub Starik and David Agner, a pair of journalists from the Czech Republic. Baseball is pretty far down the pecking order in the Central...

BASEBALL

Mar 11, 2015

Team Europe jumps out to early lead, earns series split against Japan

This time Team Europe shut the door on one of the world's best.

BASEBALL

Mar 10, 2015

Samurai Japan stages comeback victory over Team Europe

Samurai Japan was on the ropes against a team of European stars hungry for a marquee win in its first game together as Team Europe.

BASEBALL / Japanese Baseball / NPB NOTEBOOK

Mar 9, 2015

Substance matters more than results during spring season

The exhibition season is well under way in Japanese baseball, with most teams already five or more games into spring training games.

One of the many entrances to the Kabukicho neighborhood in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward.

Kabukicho: Tokyo’s ‘stadium of desire’

Members of the nonprofit group Japan Youth Memorial Association search for the remains of dead soldiers in a cave in Okinawa Prefecture in February.

The long search for Japan’s lost soldiers

By Tomoko Otake

SUSTAINABLE JAPAN

Looking ahead to Yokohama’s Green × Expo 2027

Looking ahead to Yokohama’s Green × Expo 2027

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