Masanori Ishikawa joined the Tokyo Yakult Swallows two decades ago through a now-abolished free signing system at the 2001 draft — about a month after the Swallows defeated the Kintetsu Buffaloes in the Japan Series.
There have been a lot of changes — in both baseball and the world as a whole — since then, but Ishikawa in a Swallows uniform has been a constant throughout. He’s also been nothing if not solidly consistent with a 177-176 career record and 3.86 ERA across 2,953 innings in 504 games.
At 6:04 p.m. at Tokyo Dome on Wednesday night, the 41-year-old lefty became one of the oldest pitchers to start a Japan Series game. At 8:54 p.m., he became the oldest Central League pitcher to win one, narrowly outdueling a hurler 18-years his junior to help bring the Swallows to the brink of their first Japan Series title since 2001 with a 2-1 win over the Orix Buffaloes in Game 4.