Japanesebaseballcards

The Hawks were leading Nippon-Ham 4-1 going into the bottom of the eighth inning last Tuesday night in Fukuoka when the wheels fell off for the Fighters.  SoftBank battered reliever Shoma Kanemura for ten runs (only nine of which were earned) on seven hits and four walks, highlighted by Ukyo Shuto's inside-the-park grand slam.  Kanemura faced 13 batters and had only retired two ...

On Thursday of this week, Raidel Martinez of the Yomiuri Giants became the second pitcher this season to reach the 250 career saves mark.  Martinez did it in 411 career games, the fastest in NPB history - in contrast, Naoya Masuda, the last guy to reach ...

I mentioned in my post the other day about the new Topps Chrome Samurai Japan set that I had researched how many players on Japan's six WBC team rosters have played in MLB.  There are 37 so far (with more on the way, of course, pos...

On Friday night at Jingu Stadium, Hiroki Fukunaga of the Chunichi Dragons led off the game against the Tokyo Yakult Swallows with a home run, his seventh of the season (and third lead off one).  Last night, he repeated himself, leading off the game with a home run again.  That made him the first player in Dragons history to hit lead off home runs in consecutive games, although i...