Biographical Information[edit]

Yoshihisa Naruse pitched in Nippon Pro Baseball for 13 years, winning an ERA title.

Naruse was a 6th-round draft pick of the Chiba Lotte Marines in the 2004 NPB draft; the scout was Yoshihiro Iizuka. He reached the Marines' top club in 2006, going 5-5 with a 3.45 ERA in 13 games. Becoming a regular member of the rotation in 2007, he dominated, going 16-1 with a 1.82 ERA. In 173 1/3 innings, he allowed 27 walks and 132 hits while fanning 138. He led the Pacific League in ERA, mere percentage points ahead of Yu Darvish. Naruse was second to Hideaki Wakui in wins, led the league with 4 shutouts, was 4th with 6 complete games and 8th in strikeouts (between Wakui and Nagisa Arakaki). He lost the Best Nine at pitcher to Darvish. He was also voted into the 2007 NPB All-Star Games, and he completed 2 shutout innings in Game 1.

The Tochigi native was a surprise starter for game two of the 2007 Asian Championship, replacing Darvish, the previously announced starter; both teams broke their gentleman's agreement not to change the announced rotation. He had an unimpressive outing in a 4-3 win over South Korea. Young-min Ko homered off of Naruse in the first and in the 4th, Taek-keun Lee doubled in another. Naruse was promptly yanked in favor of Kenshin Kawakami, who would get the win.

Naruse was selected into the 2008 NPB All-Star Game, but he was destroyed by Central League hitters in Game 2. He allowed 11 runs and 8 runs, and he set NPB All-Star Game records for most hits allowed and runs allowed. A few weeks later, he was in the 2008 Olympics and did excellently, allowing no runs in 12 innings, allowing only 5 hits and 3 walks while striking out 19. Naruse allowed just 2 hits and fanned 7 in a 1-0 win over Team Canada, which was loaded with former major leaguers and top prospects. He did allow two inherited runners to score in the 4-2 loss to Cuba, allowing a single to Alfredo Despaigne to plate the two runners left behind by Yu Darvish; Darvish took the loss while Naruse settled down from there and again outperformed his more famous PL counterpart. His 13 strikeouts in the round-robin were one behind leader Chris Begg. He ended up 8-6 with a 3.23 ERA in he 2008 season.

The ace of Chiba Lotte extended his dominance in 2009, and he had a 11-5 record with a 3.28 ERA. He was 5th in complete games (2), 8th in wins (tied with Chihiro Kaneko and D.J. Houlton), 9th in ERA (between Takayuki Kishi and Satoshi Nagai) and 6th in Ks (156 in 153 2/3 IP, between Kaneko and Nagai). Naruse then went 13-11 with a 3.31 ERA and 7 complete games in 201, and he ranked 3rd in complete games (tied with Kaneko), 6th in wins, 7th in ERA (between Kaneko and Bobby Keppel) and 3rd in strikeouts (192, between Toshiya Sugiuchi and Kaneko). In the 2010 PLCS, Naruse completed the game against the Softbank Hawks in the final stage's Game 1, then he recorded a 4-hit shutout to help the Marines advance to the 2010 Nippon Series; he won the MVP of the series. Naruse only allowed 2 runs in 5 innings in Nippon Series Game 1 to get a win, then he fanned 7 in 6 innings with 2 runs allowed in Game 6. The Marines beat the Dragons in 7 games, and Naruse won his only title.

Naruse went 10-12 with a 3.27 ERA in 2011, and he led the league in losses, hits allowed (188), homers allowed (15) and runs allowed (75). He was 5th with 151 strikeouts, between Tsuyoshi Wada and Tadashi Settsu, and walked only 18. Naruse was voted into the 2012 NPB All-Star Game 2, and he only allowed a RBI single to Wladimir Balentien in Game 1 but got the loss. He ended up 12-11 with a 2.83 ERA in 2012, and he led the league in innings (200 2/3), hits allowed (176), homers allowed (21) and runs allowed (71). He also ranked 4th in wins (tied with Kenji Otonari and Seth Greisinger), 3rd in complete games (5, tied with Mitsuo Yoshikawa and Hiroshi Kisanuki) and 6th in strikeouts (122, between Otonari and Greisinger). He was 6-4 with a 3.00 ERA in 2013, and he had a 9-11 record with a 4.67 ERA in 2014. Naruse was 4th in losses that season (tied with Yusei Kikuchi), and he announced that he would become a free agent.

The Yakult Swallows signed him, but he was never as effective as in the past. He went 3-8 with a 4.76 ERA in 2015, and his ERA rose to 5.60 in 22 starts in 2016. He pitched pitched 12 games with a 5.40 ERA in 2017, and he stayed in the NPB Farm Leagues for the entire 2018 season. The Swallows then released him, and Naruse signed with the Orix Buffaloes. However, he surrendered 16 runs in 19 2/3 innings, and he was released. He then joined the Tochigi Golden Braves of the Baseball Challenge League.

Overall, Naruse was 96-78 with a 3.43 ERA, struck out 1,211 and pitched 1,567 2/3 innings in 13 seasons in NPB.

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Yoshihisa Naruse

Biographical Information[edit]

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