Otani's extraordinary skills gain wider exposure during games against Mexico, Netherlands
The only reason Shohei Otani won't be Japan's breakout star at the 2017 World Baseball Classic is because everybody is already talking about the Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters star. He can throw 160 kph and hit home runs beyond 130 meters. The wonders of the ...
Pena alone can't lift Rakuten's power profile
If the Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles seal the deal with Wily Mo Pena, as reported on Monday by Daily Sports Online, it will help the Eagles avoid taking a step back in the power department, but it won't solve all the team's problems. What Pena, ...
Designated hitter Andruw Jones and closer Brian Falkenborg have been cut from the Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles' reserved list and released, an informed source said Friday. The team is looking toward to acquiring foreign players to fill the cleanup hitter and closer roles, but depending ...
Eagles' Matsui records career-best nine strikeouts in victory over Hawks
Marquee rookie Yuki Matsui overcame a shaky first inning and a seventh-inning crisis to earn his first win as a starter on Wednesday as the Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles beat the Fukuoka Softbank Hawks 7-4 and snapped the Pacific League leaders' win streak at ...
Veteran Andruw Jones drove in two runs to propel the Pacific League-leading Rakuten Eagles to a 3-1 victory over the Seibu Lions on Saturday afternoon. Jones, who has 434 career big-league homers, hit his 17th in Japan to lead off the fourth inning against Lions ...
The Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles moved into a tie for the Pacific League lead on Thursday following an 8-4 win over the Chiba Lotte Marines, who started the day with a one-game advantage. Cleanup hitter Andruw Jones hit two-run home runs in consecutive at-bats to ...
Early trouble will test Golden Eagles' mettle
The grind of a 144-game season will usually, over time, weed out the pretenders from the contenders, often with ruthless precision. While any baseball season is littered with peaks and valleys, some extremes being higher or lower than others, there are usually signs throughout that ...
Dutch trailblazers Meulens, Jones hand baton to younger generation
Hensley "Bam-Bam" Meulens was the first native of Curacao to make it to the major leagues. He played for the New York Yankees from 1989-1993, and spent the next three years in Japan before joining the Montreal Expos in 1997 and the Arizona Diamondbacks, ...
Hurler Maeda gets call to start against Netherlands
It will take one more win to punch a ticket to San Francisco. But of course nothing's secured yet for Team Japan. After a nail-biting 4-3 extra-inning victory over Taiwan in their first game of the World Baseball Classic's second round on Friday, the two-time ...
Netherlands' success no overnight phenomenon
The calls began coming in August, and they didn't stop. Netherlands manager Hensley Meulens had a player who was excited about the upcoming World Baseball Classic, and he wanted the manager to hear all about it.
