Baseball

YOKOHAMA – Anyone who thought the Hanshin Tigers used all nine lives just to make it into the Central League Climax Series was mistaken. They clearly have a few more left up their sleeves. Hanshin took advantage of a pair of costly wild pitches, Ryutaro Umeno broke an eighth-inning tie […]

HIROSHIMA – The Hiroshima Carp promoted pitching coach Shinji Sasaoka and named him the club’s new manager for the 2020 season on Monday. The 52-year-old replaces Koichi Ogata, who stepped down after the Central League team finished the regular season in fourth and missed out on a Climax Series playoff […]

WASHINGTON – With all of that October experience, no wonder Justin Turner and the rest of the Los Angeles Dodgers managed to produce a postseason inning unlike any other: seven runs, all scored with two outs and two strikes. Turner’s three-run homer capped a startling and record-setting rally in the […]

FUKUOKA – The Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks extended their season for another day, beating the Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles 6-4 on Sunday to even their Pacific League Climax Series first stage at one game apiece. Shuhei Fukuda broke a 4-4 tie, blasting a hanging forkball from Eagles starter Manabu Mima into […]

Japanese baseball Hall of Fame pitcher Masaichi Kaneda, whose 400 wins are the most in the country’s pro baseball history, died Sunday morning in a Tokyo hospital of acute cholangitis at the age of 86. Kaneda, who turned pro in 1950 before he was 17, had a 20-year career. He […]

NEW YORK – Masahiro Tanaka held the visitors to a run over five innings on Saturday, while a grand slam from Didi Gregorius powered the New York Yankees to an 8-2 win over the Minnesota Twins for a two-game lead in the American League Division Series. The Japanese starter scattered […]

YOKOHAMA – Sometimes, you just have a feeling. Two years ago, Tomo Otosaka hit a big three-run home run for the Yokohama BayStars in the seventh inning of a road playoff win over the Hanshin Tigers. With that vision dancing around in his head, BayStars manager Alex Ramirez sent Otosaka […]

YOKOHAMA – Big, improbable comebacks are becoming the Hanshin Tigers’ speciality. Fumiya Hojo hit a three-run home run to get the Tigers close in the seventh and put them ahead with a two-run triple in the eighth as a spirited rally resulted in an 8-7 win over the Yokohama BayStars […]

FUKUOKA – Hideto Asamura homered twice and had an RBI single for the Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles, who maintained their Game 1 mastery of the Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks with a 5-3 win to open the Pacific League Climax Series’ first stage on Saturday. Asamura may be new to the Eagles […]

ATLANTA – Mike Foltynewicz threw seven dominating innings, Adam Duvall hit a pinch-hit homer and the Braves evened the National League Division Series with a 3-0 victory on Friday over the St. Louis Cardinals in Game 2. After spending a good chunk of his summer at Triple-A Gwinnett, Foltynewicz has […]