is a

Japanese Japanese may refer to: * Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia * Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan * Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture ** Japanese diaspor ...

professional

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each, taking turns batting and fielding. The game occurs over the course of several plays, with each play generally beginning when a player on the fielding tea ...

player for the

Hiroshima Toyo Carp The is a professional baseball team based in Hiroshima, Japan. They compete in the Central League of Nippon Professional Baseball. The team is primarily owned by the Matsuda family, led by , who is a descendant of Mazda founder Jujiro Matsuda ...

of the

Nippon Professional Baseball or NPB is the highest level of baseball in Japan. Locally, it is often called , meaning ''Professional Baseball''. Outside Japan, it is often just referred to as "Japanese baseball". The roots of the league can be traced back to the formation ...

(NPB).週刊ベースボール (Weekly Baseball) July 2, 2012 issue p.57 He has the records for most assists (535) and highest

fielding percentage In baseball statistics, fielding percentage, also known as fielding average, is a measure that reflects the percentage of times a defensive player properly handles a batted or thrown ball. It is calculated by the sum of putouts and assists, div ...

(1.000) in a single-season and longest error-free streak (569), these are all NPB records by a second baseman.

Early baseball career

A native of Tokyo, he played as a third baseman for Tokyo City University Shiojiri High School, but his team never made it past the qualifying round for Summer Koshien. He enrolled in Chukyo Gakuin University in

Gifu Prefecture is a prefecture of Japan located in the Chūbu region of Honshu. Gifu Prefecture has a population of 1,991,390 () and has a geographic area of . Gifu Prefecture borders Toyama Prefecture to the north; Ishikawa Prefecture to the northwest, F ...

, and from the spring of his 1st year, he played as a shortstop as his school competed in the Tokai Region Baseball League. He won a triple-crown in his second year, and throughout his university career, he was awarded League Best Nine 5 times. His dynamic fielding earned him praise when he participated in the US-Japan University Baseball Championship Series.

Professional career

He was selected as the Hiroshima Toyo Carp's 2nd pick during the autumn

2011 Nippon Professional Baseball draft The 2011 Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB) Draft was held on October 27, , for the 47th time at the Grand Prince Hotel Takanawa to assign amateur baseball players to the NPB. It was arranged with the special cooperation of Toshiba with official n ...

. He wished to be given Manager Kenjiro Nomura's previous jersey number 7, but was instead assigned the number 33. In 2012, he appeared in his first official game on June 29 as a pinch runner for Tetsuya Okubo. From July onwards, he filled in the role of 2nd baseman after

Akihiro Higashide is a Nippon Professional Baseball player for the Hiroshima Toyo Carp in Japan's Central League The or is one of the two professional baseball leagues that constitute Nippon Professional Baseball in Japan. The winner of the league champions ...

was sidelined by an injury in his right middle finger. He appeared in 63 games, and batted in 12 runs. In 2013, After Higashide injured his knee during spring training, Kikuchi eventually became fixed in the starting line-up. On May 12, he and

Yoshihiro Maru is a Japanese professional baseball outfielder for the Yomiuri Giants of Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB). He previously played for the Hiroshima Toyo Carp. Career In , Hiroshima Toyo Carp selected him in the third round. He missed time his ...

hit two grand slams in the game against the Chunichi Dragons, the 22nd time it happened in NPB history. This was the first time in both the player's professional careers to hit a grand slam. Maru hit one in the 4th inning, and Kikuchi followed in the 6th. A plaque commemorating the team's two-grand-slam game was installed beyond the left field wall at Mazda Stadium two days later. On September 26, he recorded his 497th assist as second baseman, breaking the previous NPB record held by Chunichi's

Masahiro Araki is a retired Japanese professional baseball player. He played predominantly at second base for the Chunichi Dragons. He was noted for his speed and defense. Early career Araki was a first-round draft pick by Chunichi in 1995, out of high schoo ...

in 2005. He finished the season with 528 assists, setting an all-time NPB high. Three days later in a match with the Giants, he batted in his 50th sac bunt, beating the franchise record held by Higashide in 2001, and also topped the league. He appeared in 141 games of the 144 on the schedule, and though he batted only .247, he hit 11 home runs and drove in 57. In 2018, he was selected to the 2018 NPB All-Star game, making it his fifth consecutive appearance at the NPB All-Star series. After the 2019 season, Carp announced it was allowing Kikuchi to enter the posting system to play in

Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball organization and the oldest major professional sports league in the world. MLB is composed of 30 total teams, divided equally between the National League (NL) and the American League (AL), ...

(MLB). However, Kikuchi signed a 4-year contract extension worth ¥300 million ($2.7 million) a year with the Carp on December 27, 2019 after failing to secure a deal with any of the MLB teams.

International career

Kikuchi represented the

Japan national baseball team The is the national team representing Japan in international baseball competitions. It won the World Baseball Classic in 2006 and 2009, as well as WBSC Premier12 in 2019. The team is currently ranked 1st in the world by the World Baseball Sof ...

in the 2013 exhibition game against

Chinese Taipei national baseball team The Chinese Taipei baseball team () is the national men's baseball team of the Republic of China (Taiwan). It is governed by the Chinese Taipei Baseball Association. The team is ranked second in the world by the World Baseball Softball Confederat ...

, 2014 MLB Japan All-Star Series, 2015 exhibition games against Europe, 2016 exhibition games against

Chinese Taipei "Chinese Taipei" is the term used in various international organizations and tournaments for groups or delegations representing the Republic of China (ROC), a country commonly known as Taiwan. Due to the One-China principle stipulated by th ...

, 2016 exhibition games against

Mexico Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...

and

Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...

2017 World Baseball Classic The 2017 World Baseball Classic (WBC) was an international professional baseball competition, composed of 16 competing nations, held from March 6 to March 22, 2017. It was the fourth iteration of the World Baseball Classic. The first-round hosts ...

2018 MLB Japan All-Star Series The 2018 MLB Japan All-Star Series was the twelfth edition of the MLB Japan All-Star Series, a best-of-six series between an All-Star team from Major League Baseball (MLB) and for the second time in series history, the Japanese national team, Sa ...

and

2019 WBSC Premier12 The 2019 WBSC Premier12 was an international baseball championship featuring the 12 highest-ranked national teams in the world, held by the World Baseball Softball Confederation (WBSC). It was the second WBSC Premier12 event. The championship ...

. On August 20, 2018, he was selected 2018

MLB Japan All-Star Series The MLB Japan All-Star Series is an irregular end-of-the-season tour of Japan made by an All-Star team from Major League Baseball (MLB) since 1986, contested in a best-of format against the All-Stars from Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB) or ...

. On October 1, 2019, he was selected at the 2019

WBSC Premier12 The WBSC Premier12 is the international baseball tournament organized by the World Baseball Softball Confederation (WBSC), featuring the 12 highest-ranked national baseball teams in the world. The first tournament was held by Taiwan and Japan i ...

, where he was named the tournament's outstanding defensive player.

References

External links

NPB.jp
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kikuchi, Ryosuke 1990 births Living people Hiroshima Toyo Carp players Nippon Professional Baseball second basemen People from Higashiyamato, Tokyo Baseball people from Tokyo Metropolis 2017 World Baseball Classic players 2019 WBSC Premier12 players Baseball players at the 2020 Summer Olympics Chukyo Gakuin University alumni Olympic baseball players of Japan Olympic medalists in baseball Olympic gold medalists for Japan Medalists at the 2020 Summer Olympics