Baseball

Fukuoka – The Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks have postponed Sunday’s game with the Seibu Lions after veteran outfielder Yuya Hasegawa tested positive for the novel coronavirus, the Pacific League club said Saturday. Hasegawa is the sixth player in Nippon Professional Baseball to test positive, but the first one since all players […]

Fukuoka – Ryoya Kurihara belted a three-run first-inning home run and Shuta Ishikawa threw a one-hitter as the Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks beat the Pacific League champion Seibu Lions 4-0 on Saturday afternoon. After Ishikawa struck out two of the four batters he faced in the first inning, Kurihara came up […]

Chicago – Yu Darvish pitched six shutout innings, Jason Heyward hit a key two-run single and the Chicago Cubs beat the Pittsburgh Pirates 6-3 on Friday night. Darvish (1-1) allowed two hits, struck out seven and walked one, bouncing back nicely after he struggled in his first start last weekend […]

Miami – With six teams idled Friday by the COVID-19 pandemic, Major League Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred spoke to union leader Tony Clark about the importance of players following the sport’s coronavirus protocols. Manfred and Clark talked about what needs to be done to finish the season, a person familiar […]

Anaheim, California – Shohei Ohtani homered for the second consecutive night and recorded his first stolen base of the coronavirus-delayed season in the Los Angeles Angels’ 8-5 loss to the Seattle Mariners on Thursday. Ohtani went 1-for-4 and cut the Mariners’ lead to three runs with his three-homer off Dan […]

New York – Major League Baseball has postponed this weekend’s scheduled series between Toronto and Philadelphia because of concerns about the coronavirus after two Phillies staffers tested positive. « Major League Baseball will coordinate with health experts and the Major League Baseball Players Association in planning for the Phillies’ resumption of […]

New York – Shortened season, shorter games. Big league doubleheaders will now become a pair of seven-inning games, baseball’s latest radical rule change during a season reshaped by the coronavirus pandemic. Major League Baseball and the players’ union reached agreement Thursday on the new twinbills, a person familiar with the […]

Unheralded lefty Keiji Takahashi pitched and fielded his position well over eight innings for the Yakult Swallows in a 6-0 Central League win over the Hanshin Tigers on Thursday. Takahashi (1-1) worked around a first-inning leadoff single by making a good defensive play to force the runner at second. He […]

Anaheim, California – Los Angeles Angels two-way player Shohei Ohtani hit his first home run of the season on Wednesday night, a three-run blast that briefly put the Angels ahead in a 10-7 loss to the Seattle Mariners. The Mariners’ Kyle Seager drove in three runs and Dylan Moore hit […]

New York – The fake crowds and phony noise were tolerable, at least for a few games. Empty ballparks, too, because it was worth it to have baseball back in some form to provide a few hours of escape from a pandemic that seems increasingly hard to escape from. Still, […]