Baseball

The 21-year-old's first-inning blast, his 36th home run of the season, put the visitors ahead for good on Tuesday night at Yokohama Stadium.

As baseball writers prepare to cast their votes, the two-way star's achievements should put him above his nearest competitor, Toronto slugger Vladimir Guerrero Jr.

The left-handed slugger belted the home run off a fastball from Cincinnati starter Vladimir Gutierrez, launching it to the stands behind right field.

Ayumu Ishikawa tossed six shutout innings as the Pacific League-leading Chiba Lotte Marines claimed a 1-0 win over the Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters on Monday, moving 3½ games clear of the Orix Buffaloes. Ishikawa (3-2), who returned this month after having surgery on his right ...

Showing no sign of the arm soreness that pushed back his start by two days, the two-way sensation looked sharp on the mound for the Angels.

In the 23-year-old ace, who continues to dominate NPB pitching across all metrics, the club has another real chance at winning the Pacific League pennant for the first time as the Buffaloes.

Wright was thrown out of the contest on Thursday with two out in the ninth inning of a 9-3 White Sox loss for hitting the Los Angeles Angels two-way star in the calf with a fastball.

Ohtani missed his scheduled pitching start Friday because of a sore arm and manager Joe Maddon had considered shutting the Japanese star down for the season on the mound.

Manager Joe Maddon said the Angels weren't shutting down Ohtani yet, and hope he's only experiencing late-season fatigue.