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Rookie right-hander Naoto Nishiguchi pitched 4⅓ innings in emergency relief to earn his first pro win as the Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles beat the Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks 3-2 in the Pacific League on Saturday. The win at Sendai’s Rakuten Seimei Park pulled the Eagles into a tie for first place […]

ST. PETERSBURG, Florida – Shohei Ohtani smacked his first career leadoff homer in the Los Angeles Angels’ 4-3 loss to the Tampa Bay Rays on Friday, briefly climbing back to the top of the major league home run leaderboard with the monster shot. Yusei Kikuchi, meanwhile, earned his fifth win […]

Taiwan’s Wang Po-jung drove in two runs, and rookie right-hander Hiromi Ito allowed two runs over six innings as the Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters beat the Orix Buffaloes 5-2 on Thursday, snapping the Pacific League leaders’ streak of 11 straight winning decisions. Kensuke Kondo doubled with two outs in the […]

New York – Major League Baseball’s crisis of the moment will be worth the short-term distraction, Commissioner Rob Manfred said on Wednesday, if the league’s effort restores balance to the product on the field. The league’s enhanced enforcement of foreign-substance usage by pitchers has made mandatory umpire checks a strange […]

The Pacific League-leading Orix Buffaloes rode solo home runs from rookie Kotaro Kurebayashi, Olympic team member Masataka Yoshida and slugger Yutaro Sugimoto to beat the Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters 3-1 on Wednesday and win their 11th consecutive decision. The win streak is the franchise’s longest since the Hankyu Braves managed […]

Anaheim, California – Los Angeles Angels starter Shohei Ohtani did not factor into the decision in Wednesday’s 9-3 extra-inning loss to the San Francisco Giants, tossing more than 100 pitches for only the third time in his MLB career. Ohtani pitched six innings of one-run ball, giving up six hits […]

How closely have you been following the MLB phenomenon that is Shohei Ohtani this stellar season? Step up to plate and show us your stuff, slugger. In a time of both misinformation and too much information, quality journalism is more crucial than ever.By subscribing, you can help us get the […]

San Diego – Japanese right-hander Yu Darvish struck out 11 and tossed six innings of one-run ball, setting an all-time Major League Baseball record and helping the San Diego Padres beat the Los Angeles Dodgers 6-2 on Monday. Darvish’s 11th strikeout was also his 1,500th major league strikeout and he […]

New York – Los Angeles Angels two-way star Shohei Ohtani was named Player of the Week for the American League on Monday, claiming the Major League Baseball award for the third time in his career. Ohtani earned the honor for the June 14-20 period, hitting .296 with six home runs […]

Family was the dominant theme in NPB last week. The Japanese baseball world received some stunning news on Thursday, when it was revealed Yomiuri Giants infielder Justin Smoak was leaving the team, and Japan, in order to be with his family. Smoak, who was in his first NPB season, has […]