Baseball

Scott Mathieson had appeared in 393 games for the Yomiuri Giants entering this season. Over the past seven years, he’s come out the Yomiuri bullpen mostly tasked with either protecting leads, keeping the Kyojin in games or closing out wins. Mathieson has been a vital member of the club since […]

TOKOROZAWA, SAITAMA PREF. – Yasuo Sano threw four innings in an emergency start, then Kyle Martin added three innings of relief as the Seibu Lions shut out the Yomiuri Giants 4-0 in interleague play on Tuesday. Sano made his first start of the season after scheduled starter Tatsuya Imai developed […]

ST. PETERSBURG, Florida – Charlie Morton is proving his worth to the Tampa Bay Rays. The 35-year-old right-hander, signed to a $30 million, two-year contract in free agency, remained unbeaten with his new team on Monday night, limiting the Oakland Athletics to two hits over seven shutout innings of a […]

SANTO, DOMINGO – David Ortiz was back in Boston on Monday night for medical care, a day after authorities said the former Red Sox slugger affectionately known as Big Papi was ambushed by a gunman at a bar in his native Dominican Republic. A plane carrying the 43-year-old retired athlete […]

NEW YORK – Police in the Dominican Republic were investigating on Monday why a man shot and wounded former Boston Red Sox slugger David “Big Papi” Ortiz as he sat in a nightclub late on Sunday, according to police and the team. Ortiz, a 43-year-old retired baseball player still beloved […]

SAN FRANCISCO – Walker Buehler and two relievers combined on a five-hitter, and the Los Angeles Dodgers beat ace Madison Bumgarner and the San Francisco Giants 1-0 on Sunday. Max Muncy homered into McCovey Cove off Bumgarner (3-6) in the first inning, then exchanged words with the ace as he […]

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, and his teammate Tsuyoshi […]

SANTO, DOMINGO – Former Boston Red Sox slugger David Ortiz was ambushed by a man who got off a motorcycle and shot him in the back at nearly point-blank range Sunday night in his native Dominican Republic, authorities said. Dominican National Police Director Ney Aldrin Bautista Almonte said Ortiz was […]

Yomiuri Giants fans used their cheers to welcome ace pitcher Tomoyuki Sugano back to the diamond. The Giants players did it with their bats. Yoshiyuki Kamei, Akihiro Wakabayashi and Shinnosuke Abe all homered and Sugano made a winning return as the Kyojin beat the Chiba Lotte Marines 11-3 in front […]

ANAHEIM, CALIFORNIA – Shohei Ohtani and Yusei Kikuchi sensed the excitement around Angel Stadium each time they dug in against each other. The Japanese stars also realized millions of eyes were on them from across the Pacific as they faced each other in the major leagues for the first time. […]