Former Hanshin Tigers great, Sawamura Award winner Gene Bacque dies at 82
Former Hanshin Tigers ace Gene Bacque, the first foreign recipient of the Sawamura Award, passed away on Saturday night at the age of 82, multiple outlets in his home state of Louisiana have reported. Bacque died after complications from a surgical procedure. A native of ...
Yudai Ono pitched the 92nd no-hitter in NPB history Saturday, striking out nine and walking one in the Chunichi Dragons' 3-0 win over the Hanshin Tigers. The 30-year-old lefty's gem comes eight days after Kodai Senga threw his first career no-hitter for the Fukuoka SoftBank ...
Veteran pitcher Randy Messenger will retire at the end of this season, the Hanshin Tigers announced Friday, the same day he formally told the club of his decision. The 38-year-old right-hander, who joined the Tigers in 2010, has an NPB career record of 98-84 over ...
Shun Yamaguchi struck out 10 and drove in a run in the Central League on Sunday to help lead the Yomiuri Giants to a 6-3 win over the Hanshin Tigers. Before he started to struggle in the sixth inning, Yamaguchi retired 12 straight at Tokyo ...
Giants' Hayato Sakamoto sets personal record with 32nd homer in triumph over Tigers
Just like the weather outside of the relatively comfortable and cool confines of Tokyo Dome, the Yomiuri Giants are starting to heat up again. Giants captain Hayato Sakamoto set a career-high with a solo home run in the first inning, rookie starter Yuki Takahashi kept ...
Tigers' Yangervis Solarte enjoys memorable NPB debut, slugging game-winning homer against Giants
Yangervis Solarte hasn't even been in Japan that long and yet Hanshin Tigers fans already love him. He made it hard not to in his first game. Solarte made his NPB debut a memorable one on Friday night, hitting a towering, tiebreaking two-run homer in the ...
Shota Imanaga threw a four-hitter on Thursday, leading the Yokohama BayStars to a 6-0 victory over the Hanshin Tigers. Imanaga (9-5) issued one walk, while striking out four in a 124-pitch effort for the BayStars at Koshien Stadium. He also singled and scored a run ...
Tigers rookie Koji Chikamoto hits for cycle in CL's rout of PL in All-Star Series finale
Hanshin Tigers rookie Koji Chikamoto became the second player to hit for the cycle in in the NPB All-Star Series, leading the Central League to an 11-3 win over the Pacific League in Saturday's series finale. Chikamoto, who became the first rookie to lead off ...
All-Star catcher and cancer survivor Fumihito Haraguchi encourages others battling illness
Fumihito Haraguchi was recovering from surgery to combat cancer when the NPB season began. On Friday night, he took his place among the best players in Japan as part of the Central League roster for this year's All-Star Series. As if being an All-Star wasn't enough, ...
Hawks' Kotaro Otake tosses eight scoreless innings in victory over Tigers
Kotaro Otake pitched eight scoreless innings and Yurisbel Gracial's seventh-inning home run lifted the Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks to a 3-0 win over the Hanshin Tigers in interleague play on Thursday. Otake (4-2) limited the Tigers to two hits and a walk, while striking out four ...
Hanshin's Fumihito Haraguchi has already written inspiring story in comeback from cancer
The past week was one of returns in Japanese baseball. Interleague play is back, with the annual competition between the Central and Pacific Leagues having kicked off on June 4. So is Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks pitcher Rick van den Hurk, who returned from a nagging ailment, ...
Kento Itohara delivers walk-off single as Tigers complete series sweep of Swallows
Kento Itohara's ninth-inning RBI single broke up a scoreless tie, lifted the Hanshin Tigers to a 1-0 win and a three-game sweep over the struggling Tokyo Yakult Swallows on Thursday. The Swallows' David Buchanan and the Tigers' Haruto Takahashi each worked six innings, but could ...
