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Japan Forward
4 days ago
- Sport
- Japan Forward
BayStars' Shugo Maki Plays a Key Role for the Reigning Champs
Every championship team needs a player like Shugo Maki. The Yokohama DeNA BayStars infielder was a big contributor to his team's Japan Series triumph in 2024 and is chipping in again this year in a big way. After a bit of a slow start, the BayStars turned it up a notch in May and headed into June in second place in the Central League standings, just 2½ games behind the front-running Hanshin Tigers. (Check out the updated standings on the NPB website.) Maki has been on fire of late and as of June 2, led the league with a .305 batting average, was second in RBIs with 36 and was second in homers with 10. Shugo Maki delivers a two-run double in the fifth inning against the Tokyo Yakult Swallows on May 18 at Jingu Stadium. (KYODO) His defensive skills at second base are among the best in the league. But it's not just his stats. Maki is a pure leader and you can tell by the way he interacts with his teammates that they look up to him. "He is clearly committed to doing what is best for the team," Yokohama manager Daisuke Miura said. "He brings a sense of stability to our lineup." You can't underestimate such contributions. Shugo Maki (©SANKEI) Shugo Maki Has Impressive Credentials The 27-year-old native of Nagano Prefecture was a member of Japan's championship team at the 2023 World Baseball Classic and is almost certain to be a member in 2026 when Japan will bid for a record fourth title. A three-time NPB All-Star and two-time Best Nine Award winner, Maki was selected in the second round of Japan's 2020 professional baseball draft. The BayStars had a brief power outage at the end of May when they were shut out in three straight games from May 25-28. During this stretch they lost 3-0 to the Hiroshima Carp before back-to-back 1-0 losses to Hanshin. They finally broke out of their slump on May 29 with a 5-1 win over Hanshin, a game in which Maki hit his eighth homer of the season. On the positive side, the team got some stellar pitching during these games. Andre Jackson (©SANKEI) Trevor Bauer (©SANKEI) Anthony Kay (©SANKEI) Strong Starting Pitching for the BayStars On May 27, Trevor Bauer went eight scoreless innings while striking out 12 batters and giving up just four hits and three walks in a no-decision for the former Cy Young Award winner. The next night, Anthony Kay gave up one run on five hits while striking out five over six innings to end up as the hard-luck loser against the Tigers. This season, Kay, Bauer and Andre Jackson have been three outstanding starters for Miura. Kay is 4-2 with 44 strikeouts and a 1.15 ERA, and Jackson is 5-1 with 50 strikeouts and a 1.27 ERA. Bauer, who deserves a better record, is 3-3 with 60 strikeouts and a 3.30 ERA. Kay and Jackson are first and third, respectively, among ERA leaders in the Central League as of June 2. Luke Voit in a March 2024 file photo. (D. Benjamin Miller/CCO 1.0/via WIKIMEDIA COMMONS) Eagles Get a Boost From Voit On the eve of their interleague showdown with the BayStars, the struggling Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles acquired former New York Yankees standout Luke Voit, according to Sports Nippon. The Eagles are in fifth place in the Pacific League with a 23-26-1 record, six games back of the front-running Hokkaido Nipponham Fighters. The acquisition of Voit should give them some much-needed pop in their lineup. In the COVID-19-shortened 2020 season, Voit led the American League in home runs (22). Voit spent the 2024 season in Mexico where he hit 23 homers and had 57 RBIs for Olmecas de Tabasco. At 34, his big league career is likely over but he could be a nice fit for the Eagles as they bid to stay in contention. Hokkaido Nipponham Fighters slugger Franmil Reyes belts a walk-off home run in the ninth inning against the Chiba Lotte Marines on June 1 at Es Con Field Hokkaido. (©SANKEI) Fighters Off to a Hot Start The Hokkaido Nipponham Fighters are off to a strong start through the first two-plus months of the NPB season. Heading into June, Tsuyoshi Shinjo's team held a 2½-game lead over the Orix Buffaloes atop the Pacific League standings. Shinjo's team showed steady signs of progress last season. So it's not a total surprise that the Fighters are doing well. One of the team leaders is Dominican outfielder Franmil Reyes, who is off to a hot start. The fan favorite has a league-leading 28 RBIs and 11 homers on June 2. He is well on pace to match or surpass his 2024 totals of 25 homers and 65 RBIs. On the mound, veteran Hiromi Ito leads the way with a 6-2 record, 66 strikeouts and a 2.38 ERA. Fighters right-hander Ruei-Yang Gu Lin pitches against the visiting Hanshin Tigers on June 3. (©SANKEI) Taiwanese standout pitcher Ruei-Yang Gu Lin, who had a 31-15 record over six seasons in the CPBL, seems to have made a smooth transition to NPB. Gu Lin has two wins and one loss in four starts this season along with 31 strikeouts and a 2.93 ERA. Kimiyasu Kudo (©SANKEI) Advertisement Kudos to Kudo for Teaching Kids Former star pitcher and Japan Series-winning manager Kimiyasu Kudo is taking his baseball knowledge on the road. The standout former pro has been teaching kids in Indonesia how to play the game. Kudo recorded 224 wins as a pitcher for the Seibu Lions, Fukuoka Daiei Hawks, Yomiuri Giants and Yokohama BayStars in a stellar career that spanned almost three decades. He also managed the Hawks to five Japan Series titles between 2015 and 2020. Kudo mentored about 100 Indonesian junior high school students at a clinic in Jakarta in May. Soccer is the most popular sport in the Southeast Asian country, but Kudo is hoping baseball will catch on there. "I hope more Indonesian children play baseball," Kudo said in a recent interview with NHK. "I want people around the world to know how wonderful this sport can be." RELATED: Author: Jim Armstrong The author is a longtime journalist who has covered sports in Japan for over 25 years. You can find his articles on SportsLook.
The Mainichi
17-05-2025
- Sport
- The Mainichi
Baseball: Otake, Oyama bring Tigers back on top of CL
NISHINOMIYA, Japan (Kyodo) -- Kotaro Otake pitched 7-1/3 solid innings and Yusuke Oyama doubled in two runs as the Hanshin Tigers regained the Central League lead with a 5-2 win over the Hiroshima Carp on Saturday. Otake (1-1) had a shutout until he gave up a two-run homer to Elehuris Montero with one out in the eighth at Koshien Stadium. The left-hander held Hiroshima to four hits without a walk. Oyama's two-run double off Hiroki Tokoda (4-3) pushed Hanshin's lead to 4-0 in the fifth. Tigers leadoff man Koji Chikamoto went 5-for-5 with an RBI and a stolen base. Suguru Iwazaki picked up his 100th career save and 11th of the season. The Carp saw their winning streak end at four games and dropped to second place. Among the day's other games, Natsuo Takizawa capped his four-hit game with a walk-off single in the 10th inning, giving the Seibu Lions a 3-2 victory over the Orix Buffaloes. The SoftBank Hawks held off the Rakuten Eagles 2-1.
Japan Times
06-05-2025
- Sport
- Japan Times
Confident Hanshin slugger Teruaki Sato taking game to next level
Teruaki Sato gave Hanshin Tigers fans an early 2025 highlight when he homered off Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Blake Snell, a two-time Cy Young winner, during an exhibition at Tokyo Dome in March. While undoubtedly a cool moment for Tigers fans, it was the type of thing that tends to fade from memory once the pennant race gets underway. But as the season rolls into its second month with Sato slugging at a high level, that home run against Snell is beginning to look like it was a sign of bigger things to come. Sato hit another home run at the Big Egg on Monday — this time in a game that counted — connecting on a three-run blast that put the finishing touches on a 10-1 victory over the Yomiuri Giants. 'I really focused, and I was able to hit a home run, so I think it was good,' Sato said. He had a pair of hits in the win, which came on Children's Day. 'I hope they were happy,' he said when told there were a lot of kids in the stands. Sato, 26, has been thrilling Hanshin fans of all ages with his recent play. He went into Tuesday's game against the Giants hitting .288 with 11 home runs. He was also on a seven-game hitting streak, batting .400 with three homers during that stretch. Sato is off to a much better start than he was at this time last year when he was batting .191 with three home runs. He was actually off to a slow beginning this year as well before breaking out with a 4-for-4 performance against the Hiroshima Carp on April 20 that included a pair of home runs and six RBIs. The Hanshin slugger is in his fifth season in NPB. He hit over 20 home runs in his first three years and helped the Tigers win a long-awaited Japan Series title in 2023. He is also part of a potent duo with No. 3 hitter Shota Morishita, who had four hits and a homer on Monday. Even with everything Sato, a three-time All-Star, has already accomplished, his start this year has some wondering if he has finally put everything together. Tigers stars Shota Morishita and Teruaki Sato celebrate after Sato hit a two-run homer during a win over the Swallows on April 17 in Tokyo. | Jiji 'I've been watching him for three years, and it's what I was waiting for,' said Tigers hurler Jeremy Beasley, the winning pitcher on Monday. 'I think everybody in Japan knew it was going to happen, just didn't know when. I hope he continues that trend because right now, he looks unstoppable. "He has the prettiest swing I've seen since Ken Griffey. It's beautiful. I think that this was just waiting to happen." Sato's 11 home runs through Monday were the most among all NPB players — no other player was in double figures — and more than the team totals of the Chunichi Dragons, DeNA BayStars, Hiroshima Carp and Seibu Lions, who each had 10, and the Tokyo Yakult Swallows, who had seven. The Tigers slugger reached double digits on May 1 and is on track to obliterate his career high of 24 home runs — which he reached as a rookie in 2021 and again in 2023 — and was on a 50-homer pace after his three-run shot in the ninth inning against the Giants. Sato also left Monday's game leading Japan with 31 RBIs, a 1.017 on-base plus slugging percentage, and, according to data site Deltagraphs, a 233 weighted runs created-plus (wRC+), which measures offensive contribution while accounting for external factors like ballparks. The Central League's average wRC+ was 94 through Monday. His major failing so far is that he has been strikeout-prone. Despite his contributions in other areas, Sato has struck out 40 times, the most in NPB. That has been a recurring issue for Sato, who has been in the top three in strikeouts in every year of his career. After his home run against Snell, Sato said that even though it was a tough situation for the Dodgers, who had arrived in Japan from the U.S. days earlier ahead of the season-opening MLB Tokyo Series, the hit still gave him confidence. In that respect, the homer may have set the stage for Sato's early success. "I think it's a confidence thing, being confident at the plate,' Beasley said. 'He knows now where the pitchers think that his holes are, and I think he's exploiting them. Because they're trying to still pick at those old holes. I think he's just comfortable in the box. "I think that there was a lot of pressure put on him early to be that (elite) player. I think now he's kind of falling into it without having to worry about it. I think for him, it's just all confidence at the plate."
03-05-2025
Asahi Reporter Remembered 38 Years after Gun Attack
Nishinomiya, Hyogo Pref., May 3 (Jiji Press)--Saturday marked the 38th anniversary of a gun attack on the Asahi Shimbun major Japanese daily's Hanshin bureau in Nishinomiya, Hyogo Prefecture, western Japan, that killed one reporter and seriously injured another. Some 330 people including local residents visited the bureau to pay tribute to the victim, Tomohiro Kojiri, then 29. On the evening of May 3, 1987, a man wearing a balaclava broke into the bureau and shot Kojiri and his colleague, Hyoe Inukai, on the second floor with a shotgun. Kojiri died in the attack, and Inukai suffered serious injuries. A group calling itself "Sekihotai" (red revenge squad) claimed responsibility for the attack. "He was a hardworking and warm person," recalled Keiko Yoshikawa, 67, who was interviewed by Kojiri about a year before the incident. "I think he wanted to work more as a reporter," said Yoshikawa, a resident of Ibaraki, Osaka Prefecture, which neighbors Hyogo. Fuku Nomura, a 19-year-old student at Kindai University from Kyoto Prefecture, western Japan, who wants to become a journalist, visited the reference room on the third floor of the bureau. "When I saw the vivid exhibits, I realized once again that the suppression of speech through violence should never be allowed." [Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]
The Mainichi
03-05-2025
- Sport
- The Mainichi
Baseball: Shoki Murakami shuts out Swallows as Tigers snap 4-game skid
NISHINOMIYA, Hyogo (Kyodo) -- Shoki Murakami threw a complete-game shutout as the Hanshin Tigers ended their losing streak at four games with a 4-0 victory over the Yakult Swallows on Friday. Murakami (5-1) picked up his fifth win of the season, the most in Nippon Professional Baseball, after scattering five hits, all singles, at Koshien Stadium. The 2023 Central League MVP and Rookie of the Year struck out seven and walked none in a 122-pitch outing. Teruaki Sato and Yusuke Oyama hit back-to-back RBI singles to give Hanshin a 2-0 lead in a three-run sixth inning. Shota Morishita added a run-scoring infield single in the seventh. Yakult starting pitcher Kojiro Yoshimura (1-2) took the loss. Among Friday's other games, pinch-hitter Hikaru Kawase hit a walk-off two-run double as the struggling SoftBank Hawks rallied to beat the Lotte Marines 4-3.
