Baseball

The Chiba Lotte Marines took hard-throwing high school pitcher Roki Sasaki in NPB’s amateur draft Thursday after four teams selected the teen talent who has been on the radar of major league clubs. The 17-year-old Sasaki’s fastball has been clocked in competition at 160 kph and as high as 163 […]

DURHAM, NORTH CAROLINA – Joe Girardi quit as manager of the U.S. baseball team trying to qualify for the Olympics before it played a single game. Girardi said Wednesday he is leaving to pursue a major league managing job. There are seven current openings. He will be replaced by Scott […]

ANAHEIM, CALIFORNIA – Joe Maddon is back under the halo. Maddon agreed to a three-year deal to become the Los Angeles Angels’ manager on Wednesday, reuniting the World Series-winning former skipper of the Chicago Cubs with the organization where he spent the first three decades of his baseball career. The […]

NEW YORK – Astros manager AJ Hinch has heard the chatter — that Rays starter Tyler Glasnow was offering a sneak peek on his offspeed deliveries, that Houston had a poker-worthy tell on Yankees hard throwers James Paxton and Luis Severino. All that pitch-tipping paranoia? “I think it’s kind of […]

WASHINGTON – It was merely the first inning, yet fans kept rising out of their seats to applaud or yell or twirl their red towels, to chant “Let’s go, Nats!” and “M-V-P!” and various players’ names, enjoying every moment of a seven-run outburst that would, eventually, propel their city to […]

WASHINGTON – More than 100 pitches in, Stephen Strasburg was adamant he wasn’t quite ready to leave the latest superb start by a Nationals pitcher against the St. Louis Cardinals in the NL Championship Series — a win that put Washington on the verge of the city’s first World Series […]

HOUSTON – Carlos Correa hit a leadoff home run in the 11th inning and the Houston Astros won a battle of the bullpens, beating the New York Yankees 3-2 Sunday night to tie the AL Championship Series at one game apiece. The slumping Correa, who earlier hit an RBI double […]

TOKOROZAWA, SAITAMA PREF. – Kenta Imamiya’s three home runs propelled the Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks to a 9-3 win over the Seibu Lions in Game 4 of the Pacific League Climax Series Final Stage on Sunday. The Hawks clinched the final stage four games to one, marking the second straight season […]

TOKOROZAWA, SAITAMA PREF. – Kenta Imamiya’s three home runs propelled the Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks to a 9-3 win over the Seibu Lions in Game 4 of the Pacific League Climax Series Final Stage on Sunday. The Hawks clinched the final stage four games to one, marking the second straight season […]

The Yomiuri Giants’ return to glory is almost complete. The Kyojin were already Central League champions. Now they’ll fight to become Japan Series champs. Yoshihiro Maru brought the tiebreaking run home with a risky two-out bunt in the sixth inning and Alex Guerrero provided some breathing room with a two-run […]