22-year-old slugger breaks dwelling run file for Japanese-born participant in final regular-season recreation

In a season of dwelling run milestones in American baseball by Albert Pujols and Aaron Judge, 22-year-old Japanese slugger Munetaka Murakami has additionally gotten into the act. Murakami now holds the file for many dwelling runs in a season by a Japanese-born participant in Nippon Professional Baseball.

Murakami, enjoying for the Tokyo-based Yakult Swallows, hit his 56th dwelling run of the season on Monday, pushing him alone into second place on the single-season record. It was the Swallows’ final regular-season recreation.

The hit got here within the seventh inning in opposition to the DeNA Bay Stars on the Swallows’ Jingu Stadium.

Murakami handed Japan’s profession dwelling run chief Sadaharu Oh, in addition to Tuffy Rhodes and Alex Cabrera, who all hit 55 in a season.

Wladimir Balentien, who was born in Curacao and beforehand performed for the Seattle Mariners and Cincinnati Reds, holds the Nippon Professional Baseball’s file of 60 dwelling runs in a season, which he set with the Swallows in 2013.

Oh hit 55 dwelling runs for the Yomiuri Giants in 1964, Rhodes did it with the Kintetsu Buffaloes in 2001, and Cabrera matched it with the Seibu Lions in 2002.

Murakami had gone 13 video games and not using a dwelling run after hitting his 54th and fifty fifth on Sept. 13. The third baseman finishes the season with a .317/.457/.706 batting line, CBS Sports reported.

Will Murakami ever play within the United States? As CBS Sports noted in August: “For these questioning, it is unclear if Murakami harbors any aspirations of enjoying in America sometime. It is price noting that MLB‘s guidelines governing worldwide free brokers would prohibit him from incomes his market worth (he is youthful than 25 years outdated and he has fewer than six years {of professional} expertise), suggesting he would not be a candidate to come back over anytime quickly no matter his intent.”