Yoshiaki Nishikawa

Yoshiaki Nishikawa (西川 佳明)

• Bats Left, Throws Left
• Height 5' 10", Weight 182 lb.

• School Hosei University
• High School PL Gakuen High School

• Born July 14, 1963 in Minamikawachi-gun, Osaka Japan

BR register page

Biographical Information

Yoshiaki Nishikawa was an Olympic pitcher and an All-Star in Nippon Pro Baseball.

Nishikawa helped PL Gakuen win the 1981 spring Koshien. In college, he had a 30-5, 1.60 record overall and set a Tokyo Big Six University League record by rolling off 16 consecutive wins. He pitched for Japan when they won the 1984 Olympics (baseball was not a medal sport yet). The Nankai Hawks drafted him in the first round of the 1986 NPB draft. He was 10-10 with a save and a 3.89 ERA as a rookie in 1986; he made his only Pacific League All-Star team that year, and he pitched 3 shutout innings with 3 Ks as the starter of the 1986 NPB All-Star Game 2. He finished 10th in the PL in ERA, between Nobuyuki Hoshino and Choji Murata.

The lefty fell to 7-10 with a 5.59 ERA and .306 opponent average in 1987 while battling injuries. He was Nankai's Opening Day starter in 1988 and no-hit the Seibu Lions for 7 innings before Masakazu Seike doubled; he wound up losing the game. He had a 6-10, 4.52 record for that season. Nishikawa was 1-6 with a 6.86 ERA and 1.90 WHIP in 1989 and 1-3 with a 7.53 ERA in 1990. He was traded with Shuji Fujimoto, Toyotoshi Chikada, Masahiko Migita and Hiroyuki Yoshida to the Hanshin Tigers for Chikafusa Ikeda, Eiji Iwakiri, Katsunori Tomari and Hisashi Ono. and allowed 7 runs (5 earned) in 10 innings in 1991 then retired the next year.

Overall, Nishikawa had gone 25-39 with a save, 4.95 ERA and .288 opponent average in 110 NPB games.

Sources

• Wiki Japan