Leadoff home runs are fun. Most can probably agree on that. A leadoff home run is a rush, an unexpected jolt of energy at the outset of a game. There have been 26 in Japan this season, the last coming off the bat of the ...
Shohei Tateyama hasn't done much pitching for the Tokyo Yakult Swallows this season, but his presence is still being felt to some extent on the diamond through Seibu Lions starter Ken Togame. In his most recent outing for the surging Lions on Tuesday, Togame shut ...
Over the past weekend in Japan, the only thing hotter than the weather, was the play of a trio of foreign NPB stars. None may have been hotter than Japhet Amador. The Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles slugger caught fire for the Pacific League leaders over ...
Sosuke Genda was an almost last-minute addition for this year's All-Star Series. But that hasn't taken any of the fun out of it for the 24-year old Seibu Lions rookie. Genda got his first taste of the All-Star Series on Friday night at Nagoya Dome. ...
It's been a week of benchmarks in NPB, with a few players reaching nice, round numbers. The biggest milestone achieved was by Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks closer Dennis Sarfate, who closed out a win over the Orix Buffaloes at Yafuoku Dome on Wednesday night for his ...
In their 83 years of existence, the Yomiuri Giants have never had a stretch quite this bad. The rapidly sinking Kyojin reached new depths on Wednesday night after Shingo Ishikawa struck out to end a 3-0 loss to the Seibu Lions at MetLife Dome. It ...
The Hiroshima Carp look unstoppable. That's a bit hyperbolic this early in the year, yes, but it doesn't feel that way when the Carp have been busy taking apart opposing pitching staffs after falling behind by a run or two. On Thursday night at Tokyo ...
The Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks are set to be the most well-represented NPB team at the 2017 World Baseball Classic after the final rosters for the tournament were revealed Wednesday in the United States. The Hawks will send six players to the tournament, which begins March ...
Now that spring camps are only a few days away for NPB teams — some players are already working out "independently" together — the foreign contingent has begun trickling into the country. It was mostly the first-year foreign players the past couple of weeks, ...
There were a number of NPB stars on the move during the first week of 2017. With spring camps set to begin in February, some players are heading abroad in order to put the finishing touches on their pre-spring preparations. This despite many of them ...
Asking what can Shohei Otani do better in 2017 is akin to the question of what do you get the person who already has everything. Otani almost did it all for the Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters this past season. He won 10 games and struck ...
Yuki Saito hasn't justified the hype that came with his being drafted by the Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters in 2010, but the reigning Japan Series champions aren't giving up on him just yet. The former amateur star, and current Fighters pitcher, made just 11 appearances ...
