Son Heung-min bids farewell to Tottenham on emotional night in South Korea
Spurs drew 1-1 with Newcastle in a preseason friendly in Seoul, but that was secondary to the farewell for the 33-year-old attacker.
There was also the sight of James Maddison being stretchered off with what manager Thomas Frank said "was most likely a bad injury" to his knee.
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Japan Times
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- Japan Times
Return of Munetaka Murakami could get hearts racing at Jingu Stadium again
The Tokyo Yakult Swallows fell back to Earth last week after an inexplicable winning streak left fans daring to dream of a late-season turnaround for the Central League's last-place team. Yakult won eight straight games before hitting the wall — and hitting it hard — with a 14-1 blowout loss against the DeNA BayStars on July 31 and two subsequent defeats against the Hanshin Tigers. The Swallows bounced back with an 8-1 win over the Tigers on Sunday. If the winning streak set hearts racing, the ensuing three-game swoon likely left the Jingu Stadium faithful barely registering a pulse. The Swallows are 33-53-5 with 46 games left and dangerously close to only having pride to play for the rest of the way. The injury-plagued Swallows, though — thanks to some key returns and a new addition — could still make the rest of the year more interesting than anyone should really expect from a team 20 games under .500. The main reason is the return of Munetaka Murakami. The two-time Central League MVP had been planning to leave NPB with a bang before heading to the majors in the offseason. Instead, Murakami has only played in seven games due to injury. Murakami returned from a long absence last week and homered in his first at-bat and connected on a second a couple days later. He was 4-for-4 with a home run and three RBIs against the Tigers on Sunday. An optimistic Swallows fan might point to Murakami's explosive potential and hope that he not only performs at a high level, but helps kick-start a moribund lineup into gear. Murakami, of course, has that ability. The pessimistic view, however, is that Murakami has not been the same batter he was during his outstanding three-year run from 2020 to 2022, with his walks and average falling, and his strikeouts soaring. He did, however, clear 30 homers in 2023 and 2024, and power is something the Swallows have been lacking. Murakami and the Swallows should be highly motivated to see the slugger perform at his absolute best to enhance the team's performance and, perhaps more importantly at this point, boost the return they'll each get if he hits the posting system this winter. Slick-fielding infielder Hideki Nagaoka also returned last week after a nearly three-month absence and could help if he hits the way he did last season. So far, Jose Osuna has carried most of the load, batting .262 with seven homers and 43 RBIs as the only player with at least 300 at-bats. Adding Murakami can only help a lineup in sore need of production — especially with Domingo Santana out due to injury. Who is to say what happens if the Swallows suddenly start putting a few more runs on the board with a little more consistency? They still won't sniff the pennant, but they won't be boring, either. Koyo Aoyagi signed with the Swallows late last month. | JIJI It would, of course, help to prevent a few more runs. That's where the club hopes taking a flyer on pitcher Koyo Aoyagi pays off. Aoyagi spent nine seasons with the Tigers before signing a minor league deal with the Philadelphia Phillies in the offseason. Aoyagi never made an appearance at the MLB level and struggled in the minors — he posted a 7.22 ERA in 23 games, mostly out of the bullpen, in Double-A and Triple-A — before returning to Japan with the Swallows in late July. 'The culture is really different from Japan, and the baseball is also different,' Aoyagi said during his introductory news conference on Thursday, according to Nikkan Sports. 'I was not able to have good results, but it was a good experience.' Aoyagi has a solid track record in NPB with a 3.08 ERA in 898⅓ innings. He did not, however, feature a lot for the Tigers in 2024 and posted a 4.57 ERA in 100⅓ innings in 2023. Aoyagi, though, is still 31, and perhaps moving back to a more familiar setting in NPB and throwing a more familiar baseball — albeit with his home games at Yakult's bandbox — will do him some good. He, at least, sounds ready for the challenge. 'The No. 1 thing is they needed me the most,' he said when asked why he joined the Swallows. The Swallows have not been a good team, and not even the 2022 version of 'Murakami-sama,' the one who hit .318 with 56 homers, will rocket them into title contention. It will, however, be interesting to see how Murakami finishes the season and what kind of impact Aoyagi, who threw a bullpen on Sunday, can have alongside Peter Lambert and Kojiro Yoshimura. The Swallows are 8½ games behind the third-place DeNA BayStars for the final spot in the Central League Climax Series and staring down the barrel of six road games against the Yomiuri Giants and the Tigers this week. The postseason is a long shot, but it's a goal the team can still rally around for now. Barring that, Yakult can still strive to climb out of last place. At the very least, perhaps a final flourish from Murakami can help the team end the year on a positive note, generate revenue, inspire the younger players and get the heart rates back up at Jingu Stadium going into 2026.
Japan Times
a day ago
- Japan Times
Son Heung-min bids farewell to Tottenham on emotional night in South Korea
Departing Tottenham captain Son Heung-min was in tears, and his teammates threw him in the air on an emotional evening in his native South Korea on Sunday. Spurs drew 1-1 with Newcastle in a preseason friendly in Seoul, but that was secondary to the farewell for the 33-year-old attacker. There was also the sight of James Maddison being stretchered off with what manager Thomas Frank said "was most likely a bad injury" to his knee.
Japan Times
a day ago
- Japan Times
Noah Lyles' win over rival Kenny Bednarek in 200 ends with staredown and shove
Noah Lyles believes he is rounding into form at the right time ahead of next month's World Championships in Tokyo after a scintillating world-leading 200-meter victory at the U.S. trials on Sunday. Lyles, the reigning Olympic 100-meter champion, will attempt to defend both his 100 and 200 world crowns in Japan, aiming to emulate Usain Bolt with a fourth consecutive world 200 gold. The 28-year-old from Florida warmed up for that challenge in Eugene on Sunday by clocking a world-leading 19.63 seconds in a testy battle with Kenny Bednarek. Lyles angered Bednarek by turning his head to stare down his rival just before he took the tape. Bednarek shoved Lyles in the back over that apparent taunt. Lyles refused to comment about the flashpoint after his win. "Under coach's orders, no comment," Lyles said before brushing off further attempts to talk about the spat. Bednarek, though, was more expansive. "That's unsportsmanlike (expletive), and I don't deal with that," Bednarek said. "I don't deal with any of that stuff. It's not good character." The feud sets up the possibility of an intriguing rivalry over the remaining months of the season between the two U.S. sprinters. While both men are planning to run in Europe ahead of the World Championships, they will almost certainly duel again in Tokyo. Lyles, who has endured a patchy season disrupted by nagging ankle and groin injuries, believes that his best is yet to come and that Sunday's win augurs well for his world championship hopes. "If they ain't gonna beat me now, they ain't gonna beat me ever," Lyles said. "I'm seeing everything I need to see in practice, so I'm truly just waiting for it to transfer over. Me and my coach says when you see something happen in practice, it takes about three weeks to see it on the track in a race. "And it's still not even close to what we've seen in practice — we're still far behind. "I'm trying to get as many races in as possible. You know, as you can all see, I'm underdeveloped in terms of races. So I just need to keep getting sharp. So I need to keep putting myself in more and more competitions." Bednarek, meanwhile, plans to be lying in wait for Lyles in Tokyo. The 26-year-old from Tulsa has three silver medals in the 200 at major championships but is waiting for his breakthrough gold. "Next time we line up, I'm gonna win," Bednarek said. "That's all that matters to me." Bednarek noted too that while Lyles had run only three races in Eugene — scratching from the 100 after his opening heat — he had raced all five rounds of the 100 and 200. "I've said it for years, Noah's gonna be Noah. If he wants to stare me down, that's fine," Bednarek said. "But I ran five rounds, and he was fresh. We can line up again when we're both fresh and let's see what happens — because I'm very confident I can beat him."
