Sports News

SEATTLE – With his first major league season barely in the books, lefty Yusei Kikuchi is already mapping out plans for his 2020 season with the Seattle Mariners. “I’m going back to the fastball,” Kikuchi said recently. Kikuchi went 6-11 this year with a 5.46 ERA after signing with the […]

The Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters agreed to a one-year contract with manager Hideki Kuriyama after the Pacific League club finished the 2019 season with a disappointing fifth-place finish. Next year will be Kuriyama’s ninth season with the Sapporo-based club, making the 58-year-old’s stint in the dugout the longest in team […]

WASHINGTON – Washington’s Juan Soto delivered a bases-loaded single against Josh Hader that scored three runs with two outs in the bottom of the eighth inning, and the Nationals rallied to beat the Milwaukee Brewers 4-3 in the NL wild-card game Tuesday night. After Hader loaded the bases by hitting […]

Yomiuri Giants captain Hayato Sakamoto was among the 28 players named Tuesday to the Japan national team for the upcoming Premier12, an international baseball event that doubles as a qualifier for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. Sakamoto and four Giants teammates headline the roster for the Nov. 2-17 competition to be […]

HIROSHIMA – Hiroshima Carp manager Koichi Ogata said Tuesday he will step down after his fifth season at the helm, a year in which the team was neither able to defend its Central League title nor advance to the Climax Series. Under the guidance of the 50-year-old Ogata, the Carp […]

The Tokyo Yakult Swallows promoted Shingo Takatsu from farm manager to replace Junji Ogawa as the top team manager on Tuesday. The 50-year-old former pitcher, who had been managing the Swallows’ Eastern League farm team since 2017, saved 286 games over his career in Japan, the second most in NPB […]

ANAHEIM, CALIFORNIA – Manager Brad Ausmus has been fired by the Los Angeles Angels after just one difficult season in charge. Angels general manager Billy Eppler announced the decision to move on swiftly from Ausmus on Monday, a day after they finished 72-90 for the franchise’s worst record since 1999. […]

NISHINOMIYA, HYOGO PREF. – The Hanshin Tigers beat the Chunichi Dragons 3-0 on Monday in their final regular-season game to edge the Hiroshima Carp out of third place in the Central League and clinch a spot in the Climax Series. The Tigers recorded their fourth shutout in five games and […]

For nearly 20 years Shinnosuke Abe’s go-to phrase during hero interviews, following some heroic feat on the baseball diamond, has been “saikō desu” (the best). He’d be asked a question and would often shout the phrase as his response as the crowd ate it up. Abe is hardly the only […]

ST. LOUIS – From the moment Joe Maddon joined the Chicago Cubs, taking the reins in a Wrigleyville bar five years ago, he talked about winning. He was the right manager at the right time for a franchise that had experienced mostly terrible timing for more than a century. Right […]