Kazuki Sugiyama‘s temper tantrum on Saturday broke not only his own hand, but forced the SoftBank Hawks’ hand in their stalemated negotiations with the guy Sugiyama replaced as closer last season, the forever-troubled Roberto Osuna.
Sugiyama broke his left hand when punching the bench in frustration at the Fighters’ ballpark in an eerie SoftBank flashback. In 2004, left-handed starter Toshiya Sugiuchi flew into a rage and sparred with the plastic bench at Fukuoka Dome.
The cost of his getting that out of his system was that the Hawks front office reopened negotiations with Osuna, who is reportedly on a contract that specifies he be used as a closer. After Osuna had more difficulty with batters this spring than he did with his girlfriend in 2018, when he was arrested for domestic assault, he declined to break camp with the major league club in the role the Hawks offered.
Continue reading NPB Games of April 14, 2026 →
It was a fun night in NPB on Wednesday, which ended with Chunichi’s former wunderkind Akira Neo doing a hero interview. Elsewhere, Kona Takahashi looked like his old self, the Nippon Ham Fighters resumed their home run attack after a day off, with the lone dinger spoiling one of the season’s best pitching performances, and the Yakult Swallows finally sacrificed.
Wednesday’s games
Swallows 3, Tigers 2: Easton Lucas was sharp in his second Japan outing for Hanshin, allowing a first-inning run on a fluke triple and a sacrifice fly while striking out six over five innings. The Tigers got some good swings in the first to take the lead against Yakult starter Kengo Matsumoto, who limited the damage on four hits and a walk to just two runs. Lucas pitched out of the only serious jam he faced, when he surrendered back-to-back no-out singles in the fifth followed by the Swallows’ first sacrifice bunt of the season.
Continue reading NPB Games of April 8, 2026 →
writing & research on Japanese baseball
