Motoyuki Akahori

Motoyuki Akahori (赤堀 元之)

• Bats Right, Throws Right
• Height 5' 11", Weight 158 lb.
• High School Shizuoka High School

• Born April 7, 1970 in Fujieda, Shizuoka Japan

BR Register page

Biographical Information

Motoyuki Akahori played in Nippon Pro Baseball for 16 years and won an ERA title.

Akahori was drafted by the Kintetsu Buffaloes in the fourth round of the 1988 NPB draft, but he only pitched 9 games for the big club in his rookie year. He joined the major league bullpen in 1990, recorded a 2.98 ERA in 21 games in that season, and notched 9 saves with a 3.54 ERA in 1991. On May 29, 1991, he put his name in the history books when he gave up a homer to pitcher Don Schulze of the Orix Blue Wave. It was the first homer hit by a pitcher in a Pacific League game since the introduction of the DH two decades earlier.

The Shizuoka native broke out in 1992 as he was named the closer before this season. He pitched 3 shutout innings with 2 strikeouts in 1992 NPB All-Star Game 3. Akahori ended up collecting a league-leading 22 saves with a 1.80 ERA, and won the Pacific League ERA title. He pitched 130 innings, just enough to win a ERA title. In fact, he was 15 innings shy from qualifying until October, so Kintetsu let Akahori start on October 5, and he dramatically completed his first career shutout in his first career start. He also won his first Fireman of the Year award with 33 saving points. He was 10th in voting for the 1992 Pacific League Most Valuable Player Award, between Yoshitaka Katori and Tetsuya Shiozaki.

Akahori was still productive in 1993, as he led the league with 26 saves and won the Fireman of the Year again. He allowed a solo shot to Hiromitsu Ochiai in 1993 NPB All-Star Game 1, but still got the save. Akahori led the league in saves for the third straight year in 1994, and also set the NPB record for 15 consecutive saves without any blown saves. His ERA was 1.82, and he also won another Fireman of the Year with 33 save points. Akahori also appeared in the 1994 NPB All-Star Games, and pitch a shutout inning in both games. He was 8th in voting for the 1994 PL MVP, between Kazuhiro Kiyohara and Takehiro Ishii.

The young closer suffered a right shoulder injury in 1995, so he only collected 13 saves with a 3.29 ERA. Akahori bounced back soon, and became the youngest player to notch his 100th career save, doing so on June 1 in the next season. He ended up notching 21 saves with a 2.09 ERA, and won his fourth Fireman of the Year award. He didn't led the league in saves (Toshihide Narimoto had 2 more), but he had two more relief wins so he shared the award with Narimoto. Akahori set the NPB record when he won his 5th Fireman of the Year in 1997, and he faced the same situation of last year. He notched 23 saves with a 3.05 ERA, and Yasuyuki Kawamoto had 2 more saves than him. However, Akahori collected 10 relief wins, so he beat Kawamoto who only had 6. After this season, he requested that he wanted to become a starter. The Kintetsu promised that if Akinori Otsuka pitched well enough, they would fulfill his wish.

Otsuka broke out in 1998, but Akahori injured his shoulder so he only pitched 24 games with a 4.21 ERA. What's worse, he tore his right elbow ligament and missed nearly the entire 1999 season. He never had another productive season, as he only pitched 5 games combined in 1999 and 2000. He started 9 games with a terrible 5.36 ERA in 2001, and his ERA rose to 6.57 in 2002. Akahori only had 5 more appearances in the next two seasons, and announced his retirement after the 2004 season. He was the pitching coach for the Orix Buffaloes from 2005 to 2009, and coached the SK Wyverns of the KBO in 2010. He returned to Orix and coached their minor league team from 2011 to 2014, and managed Niigata Albirex of the Baseball Challenge League from 2015 to 2016. Akahori returned to NPB and worked as ni-gun pitching coach for the Yakult Swallows from 2017 to 2018 and became the pitching coach for the Chunichi Dragons from 2019 to 2021.

Overall, Akahori was 58-45, collected 139 saves with a 2.88 ERA, struck out 590 and pitched 794 1/3 innings in 16 years in the NPB.

Related Sites

• Wiki Japan
• NPB.com Bio