Hiromu Matsuoka

From BR Bullpen

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Hiromu Matsuoka (松岡 弘)

  • Bats Right, Throws Right
  • Height 6' 1", Weight 176 lb.

BR Register page

Biographical Information[edit]

Hiromu Matsuoka pitched in Nippon Pro Baseball for 18 years and made eight Central League All-Star teams. His nephew Daigo Matsuoka also pitched in NPB.

Matsuoka was picked by the Sankei Atoms in the 5th round of the 1967 NPB draft after having played for Mitsubishi Heavy Industries in the industrial leagues. He was 0-1 with six runs in 2 1/3 IP as a rookie in 1968. He improved to 8-10, 3.70 in 1969 before regressing to 4-12, 4.21 in 1970. Matsuoka tied Hiroshi Kito and Keishi Asano for 8th in losses in the Central League.

The right-hander was a workhorse in 1971, his first All-Star season. Matsuoka was named the starting pitcher of the 1971 NPB All-Star Game, but he allowed a RBI double to Atsushi Nagaike and got the loss. He started 37 games, completing 14 of them, and relieved in 11 more. Overall, he worked 281 2/3 innings and had a 14-15, 2.52 record. He led the league in innings pitched, losses, batters faced (1,143), hits allowed (240), walks (84), runs allowed (95) and earned runs allowed (79). He missed the league's top 10 in ERA by .11, and he was 3rd in wins (tied with Tsuneo Horiuchi and Kazumi Takahashi) and 5th in strikeouts (between Kazuhiro Fujimoto and Hidetake Watanabe). His near-.500 record was a success on a 52-72-6 club (Sankei was now known as the Yakult Swallows, the name they retained for the remainder of Matsuoka's career).

In 1972, Matsuoka pitched even more, with 300 innings, going 17-18 with a 3.09 ERA. He was an All-Star again and led the loop in losses, runs allowed (120) and earned runs (103). He was 12 innings behind pacesetter Tsuneo Horiuchi, and he was 4th in wins (between Mitsuo Inaba and Katsuji Sakai) and 5th in strikeouts (tied with Inaba). He again missed the top 10 in ERA barely, by .02. Matsuoka was selected into the 1972 NPB All-Star Game, and he pitched 3 shutout innings combined. In 1973, Hiroshi topped 20 wins at 21-18, 2.23 with a .213 opponent average. He fanned 218 and walked 115 in 295 innings. He was three wins behind leader Yutaka Enatsu and was 4th in ERA (between Jiro Ueda and Kazushi Saeki), and 2nd in strikeouts (20 behind Takahashi). On August 14, he walked ten in a row to set a CL record. He made his third All-Star team, and he allowed two unearned runs in 1973 NPB All-Star Game 1 then pitched a shutout inning in Game 3.

The Kurashiki native slipped a bit, to 17-15, 2.80, .219 opponent average in 1974. He led the league with 95 walks and tied Kenji Furusawa and Yoshiro Sotokoba for the most shutouts (4). Matsuoka was picked for his fourth straight CL All-Star squad, and he relieved Masaji Hiramatsu in the 7th inning of the 1974 NPB All-Star Game 1. However, Matsuoka surrendered a 2-run shot to Yasuhiro Takai, and he got the loss. He was 5th in ERA(between Enatsu and Sotokoba), 5th in wins and 4th in strikeouts (between Hiramatsu and Enatsu). In 1975, Hiroshi was 13-9 with 6 saves, a 2.32 ERA and .199 opponent average. He finished second in ERA behind Sohachi Aniya and made his 5th All-Star team. He completed 2 shutout innings in the 1975 NPB All-Star Game 2 then added a shutout inning in Game 3.

Matsuoka reached 100 career wins in 1976 while making his 6th All-Star team and going 17-13 with four saves and a 3.32 ERA. He finished 6th in ERA ( between Clyde Wright and Furusawa), 3rd in wins (between Shigeru Kobayashi and Takenori Emoto) and 2nd in strikeouts (37 behind Kojiro Ikegaya). He tied Hisao Niura, Ikegaya and Senichi Hoshino for the most shutouts, 3. He failed to make the All-Star team for the first time since 1970 during the 1977 season, which he finished 9-10 with 7 saves and a 4.12 ERA.

In 1978, the veteran went 16-11 with two saves and a 3.75 ERA. He led the league in shutouts (4) and walks (96) but did not finish among the top 10 in ERA. Despite this, he won the Sawamura Award as the top pitcher in Japan. Oddly, he was not given the Best Nine as the best pitcher in his league, an honor that went to Niura. Matsuoka also ranked 2nd in wins (tied with Akio Saito) and 6th in Ks (between Osamu Nomura and Hajime Kato). In the 1978 Japan Series, he started and won game two against the Hankyu Braves, saved games four and five and then tossed a shutout in game seven to give Yakult its first Japan Series title. He had a 2.89 ERA for the Series. Despite playing a role in all four Swallows wins, he did not get Series MVP honors as those went to slugger Katsuo Osugi.

Matsuoka went 9-11 with 13 saves and a 3.96 ERA in 1979. He rebounded to 13-6 with a save and a 2.35 ERA in 1980 and won his only ERA title, .13 ahead of Suguru Egawa. The old-timer went 12-7 with four saves and a 3.75 ERA in 1981. He made his first All-Star team in five years, and he pitched 2 shutout innings with 3 Ks in the 1981 NPB All-Star Game 3. He gave up a CL-worst 29 home runs. He was 9-13 with 3 saves and a 3.32 ERA in 1982. The Swallows mainstay posted a 11-14, 4.09 record in 1983 but made his last All-Star team. He tied Kobayashi, Tatsuo Komatsu and Takashi Imoto for the league lead in losses, the first time in 11 years he had led in that category. Matsuoka injured his neck after the season and saw limited action in a very poor 1984 (1-5, 6.56, .345 opponent average). He did reach 2,000 career strikeouts on September 22, the 11th NPB pitcher to have whiffed so many. He was even worse in his final campaign, 1985 at 0-2, 9.42 with 23 hits and 10 walks in 14 1/3 IP. After retiring as a player, Matsuoka coached in the minors for Yakult, did baseball commentary for Tokyo Broadcasting and Asahi TV then coached for the Swallows. Additionally, he has released musical albums as a singer.

Matsuoka's career record was 191-190, 3.33 with 41 saves, 134 complete games and 30 shutouts in 660 games. He struck out 2,008 and walked 1,163 in 3,240 innings. As of 2025, he ranked among NPB's all-time leaders in wins (27th, between Noboru Akiyama and Shigeo Ishii), losses (9th, between Hiramatsu and Katsuji Sakai), games (25th, between Takehiko Bessho and Aniya), innings (19th, between Daisuke Miura and Enatsu), strikeouts (24th, between Nobuyuki Hoshino and K.Takahashi), walks (7th, between Bessho and Murata), hits allowed (2,939, 20th between Tadashi Wakabayashi and Kazuhisa Inao), homers allowed (326, 15th between Fumio Narita and Katsuji Sakai), earned runs allowed (1,200, tied for 15th with Murata) and 62th in ERA (between Naoki Takahashi and Watanabe).

Sources[edit]

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