is a Japanese 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 ...

pitcher In baseball, the pitcher is the player who throws ("pitches") the baseball from the pitcher's mound toward the catcher to begin each play, with the goal of retiring a batter, who attempts to either make contact with the pitched ball or draw ...

for the

Yokohama DeNA BayStars The are a professional baseball team in the Japan, Japanese Central League. Their home field is Yokohama Stadium, located in central Yokohama. The team has been known by several names since becoming a professional team in 1950. It adopted its c ...

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).

Career

In 2015 NPB draft,

selected him in the first round. Imanaga signed with the

Canberra Cavalry The Canberra Cavalry (nicknamed Cavs) is a professional baseball team from Canberra, ACT, Australia. Established in 2010, the team is a founding member of the Australian Baseball League (ABL). The Cavs home ground is Narrabundah Ballpark, know ...

of the

Australian Baseball League The Australian Baseball League (ABL) is a professional baseball league in Australia. The league is governed by the Australian Baseball Federation (ABF). It uses the same name as a now-defunct competition held during the 1990s, and though it sh ...

to play weeks 2-7 of the

2018–19 Australian Baseball League season The 2018–19 Australian Baseball League season was the ninth year Australian Baseball League (ABL) season, and was held from 15 November 2018 to 2 February 2019. It was the first season that it was played with eight teams, as the league expanded ...

In his six starts for the Cavalry, he posted a 4-0 record with a league best 0.51 ERA over 35 innings with a ridiculous 57 strikeouts to just one walk. By meeting the statistical recognition minimum (0.8IP per team game), Imanaga broke the league records for

WHIP A whip is a tool or weapon designed to strike humans or other animals to exert control through pain compliance or fear of pain. They can also be used without inflicting pain, for audiovisual cues, such as in equestrianism. They are generally e ...

(0.429), H/9 (3.6), BB/9 (0.3) and second best ERA behind

Ryan Searle Ryan Searle (born 22 June 1989, Brisbane, Australia) is an Australian professional baseball pitcher who is a free agent. He is a regular on the Australia national baseball team, the "Southern Thunder". He has been both a starter and a relief p ...

. Following his successful ABL stint, Imanaga posted a 13-7 2.91 ERA, 2019 Nippon Professional Baseball season, finishing second in wins and strikeouts only behind

Shun Yamaguchi is a Japanese professional baseball pitcher for the Yomiuri Giants of Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB). He previously played for the Yokohama BayStars/Yokohama DeNA BayStars of the Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB), and for the Toronto Blue J ...

in the Central League. Imanaga pitched a

no-hitter In baseball, a no-hitter is a game in which a team was not able to record a hit. Major League Baseball (MLB) officially defines a no-hitter as a completed game in which a team that batted in at least nine innings recorded no hits. A pitcher wh ...

on June 7, 2022.

International career

Imanaga 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 2019 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

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 February 27, 2019, he was selected at the 2019 exhibition games against Mexico. On October 1, 2019, he was selected to Team Japan for the 2019 WBSC Premier12.

References

External links

NPB.com
1993 births Living people Canberra Cavalry players Komazawa University alumni Nippon Professional Baseball pitchers Baseball people from Kitakyushu Yokohama DeNA BayStars players 2019 WBSC Premier12 players Japanese expatriate baseball players in Australia {{Japan-baseball-pitcher-stub