NEWSWORTHY
Tokyo Yakult Swallows slugger Wladimir Balentien stays ahead of curve at plate
Every time Wladimir Balentien hits a home run, and he's hit quite a few since joining the Tokyo Yakult Swallows in 2011, he has to go back to the drawing board and recalibrate his approach. Because he knows in the time it took to jog ...
Tokyo Yakult Swallows second baseman Tetsuto Yamada has won his sixth monthly MVP award after leading Japan in batting average, runs scored, stolen bases and on-base percentage in July, Nippon Professional Baseball announced Wednesday. The 26-year-old posted a .425 batting average and set a team ...
All-around talents Tetsuto Yamada, Yuki Yangita deserving of spotlight
Three seasons ago, a Triple 3 campaign was treated as something of a phenomenon. The feat — finishing a season with at least a .300 average, 30 home runs and 30 stolen bases — had been accomplished before Tetsuto Yamada and Yuki Yanagita both ...
Tetsuto Yamada, Norichika Aoki ignite offense in Swallows' sixth straight victory
Tetsuto Yamada drove in three runs and scored three times in the Tokyo Yakult Swallows' 12-6 victory over the Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks Tuesday, handing last year's Japan Series champions their first interleague loss. In front of 28,154 at Jingu Stadium, the Swallows won their sixth ...
SoftBank's Yuki Yanagita stands out among NPB crowd
The top buzzwords in Japan in 2015, as chosen through the annual U-Can Shingo Ryukogo Taisho (U-Can New Words and Buzzwords Awards), were co-winners bakugai and toripuru suri. The former refers to extreme shopping sprees carried out by Chinese tourists. The latter, Triple 3, to ...
Tetsuto Yamada, two years removed from being Japan's brightest young star, received an estimated ¥70 million pay cut from the Tokyo Yakult Swallows on Tuesday. The 25-year-old Yamada, the CL's 2015 MVP, batted .300 with 30-plus stolen bases and 30-plus home runs for the second ...
Masayuki Kuwahara smashed a tie-breaking, two-run, eighth-inning triple to lift the Yokohama BayStars to a 5-3 win over the Tokyo Yakult Swallows. Before 28,939 at packed Yokohama Stadium, the BayStars overcame three solo homers by the Swallows, tying the score at 3-3 in the seventh ...
Giants' Sugano picks up CL-leading ninth victory
A lot of NPB players might be looking forward to the upcoming All-Star break, but you might not find too many Yomiuri Giants on that list. Especially not when they're finally starting to get in a groove and build some momentum. The Giants continued their recent ...
Tetsuto Yamada went 4-for-4 with two RBIs and Yuhei Takai hit a pair of two-run doubles to power the Tokyo Yakult Swallows to a 12-3 victory over the Hiroshima Carp. After Hiroshima slugger Brad Eldred belted a solo homer in the top of the fourth ...
Eighth-inning heroics carry unbeaten Japan past Cuba
Another night, another thrilling win for Samurai Japan at the 2017 World Baseball Classic. Pinch hitter Seiichi Uchikawa brought in the tiebreaking run with a sacrifice fly in the bottom of the eighth, Tetsuto Yamada provided more breathing room with a two-run home run later ...
Matsuda, Tsutsugo carry Japan past Cuba in WBC opener
The fans waited as Nobuhiro Matsuda rounded the bases and exchanged high-fives with his teammates. They knew what was coming, and when Matsuda pumped his fist and let out a guttural yell, as is his custom after home runs, the Japanese fans packed in ...
Tomoyuki Sugano pitched four scoreless innings to set the tone as the Japan national team rebounded from a first-game loss and claimed a 9-1 victory over the Taiwanese All-Stars in an exhibition game on Wednesday. A day after dropping the opener of a two-game series ...
