Kenichi Nakata

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Kenichi Nakata (中田 賢一)

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Biographical Information[edit]

Kenichi Nakata pitched in Nippon Pro Baseball for 16 years.

In college, Nakata struck out 300 batters, won a MVP and led his league in wins. In a doubleheader his senior year, he pitched 20 innings over the course of a day, with 310 pitches. Chunichi Dragons scout Muneo Nakada told other teams he was related to Nakata, so they didn't go for him before Chunichi got him in the second round in the 2004 NPB draft. Kenichi became the first Chunichi hurler to straight from the amateur ranks to the starting rotation since Kenshin Kawakami in 1998. In 2005, he was 8-3 with a 3.63 ERA.

Nakata turned in a 7-4, 3.91 record with one save in 2006, striking out 111 in 112 2/3 IP. He started game four of the 2006 Japan Series, allowing one run in the third (on a triple by Hichori Morimoto and a double by Kensuke Tanaka) before getting yanked after four. Chunichi lost the game, 3-0, to Satoru Kanemura and the Nippon Ham Fighters, and wound up falling in five contests. He then pitched one game for the Aguilas Cibaenas in winter, but he surrendered 3 runs in 3 1/3 innings.

The ace of Chunichi had his career year in 2007, and he had a 14-8, 3.59 record with 177 strikeouts and 81 walks in 170 1/3 innings. He led the Central League in walks (22 more than runner-up Kan Otake) and wild pitches (13). Nakata was also selected into the 2007 NPB All-Star Games, and he fanned 3 in 2 innings with only a RBI single allowed to Alex Cabrera in Game 2. He was 10th in ERA (right behind future major leaguers Kawakami and Hiroki Kuroda), tied for second in wins (with Tetsuya Utsumi and Hisanori Takahashi, behind only Seth Greisinger), was 8th in innings, tied for fourth in complete games (3), was 9th in hits allowed (158) and was second in strikeouts (only three behind Utsumi). After Kawakami dropped game one of the 2007 Japan Series to Nippon Ham, Kenichi started game two and dominated, with three hits and one run (a Fernando Seguignol dinger) in eight innings in a win. Chunichi swept the next three games to take its first Japan Series title in 53 years.

Nakata faded to 7-9, 4.65 with a .293 opponent average in 2008 and led the CL with 11 hit batsmen (tied with three others). He did fan 126, fourth in the circuit, but gave up 79 runs, second to Otake. He improved to 5-4, 3.44 in 13 games in 2009, presumably sidelined by injury. He was 7-4 with a 2.90 ERA in 2010, and he started in the 2010 Nippon Series Game 5. However, Nakata surrendered 9 runs in 5 innings, and Hayden Penn got the win over him; the Dragons lost to the Chiba Lotte Marines in 7 games. Nakata suffered from shoulder injury in 2011, so he only pitched 6 games.

The Fukuoka native came back in 2012, and he went 7-10 with a 2.83 ERA. He was 9th in losses, tied with Atsushi Nomi, Hirokazu Sawamura and Kentaro Takasaki. Nakata was turned into a reliever in the middle of the 2013 season, and he notched 15 holds with a 3.40 ERA in 40 games. He tied Toshiya Okada and Ryuji Yokoyama for 10th in holds. Nakata then announced that he would become a free agent, and the Softbank Hawks signed him. He returned to rotation in 2014, and he had a 11-7 record with a 4.34 ERA. Nakata was 5th in wins in the Pacific League, tied with Shohei Ohtani and Jason Standridge. He walked 6 and allowed 2 runs in 3 innings in the 2014 Nippon Series Game 4, and the Hawks beat the Hanshin Tigers in 5 games.

Nakata went 9-7 with a 3.24 ERA in 2015, and he only allowed one run in 7 innings in the 2015 CLCS final stage Game 3 to help the Hawks advance to the 2015 Nippon Series. He broke the CLimax Series record for most career wins. Nakata started in Game 3 of the Nippon Series, but he allowed 2 homers to Tetsuto Yamada and Kazuhiro Hatakeyama in 4 2/3 innings. The Hawks beat the Yakult Swallows in 5 games. He then went 7-3 with a 3.01 ERA in 2016, and he slumped to 7-6 with a 4.57 ERA while leading the league with 9 hit-by-pitches in 2017. Nakata struggled again as he was 5-3 with a 5.20 ERA in 2018, and he only pitched one game for the big club in 2019. The Hawks then traded him to the Tigers for nothing, and he started 3 games with a 7.59 ERA in 2020, but he didn't reach the top team in 2021 and he announced his retirement. He then became a minor league coach for the Hawks from 2022 to 2023, and he became the big club pitching coach in 2024.

Overall, Nakata was 100-79 with a 3.75 ERA, struck out 1,350 and pitched 1,550 1/3 innings in 16 seasons in NPB. His repertoire included a forkball, slider and fastball (peak 95 mph). As of 2025, he was 81st in strikeouts (between Koichiro Sasaki and Yasuo Yonekawa) in NPB history.

Sources[edit]

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