Ryosuke Miyaguni

Ryosuke Miyaguni (宮國 椋丞)

• Bats Right, Throws Right
• Height 6' 0", Weight 167 lb.
• High School Okinawa Itoman Prefectural High School

• Born April 17, 1992 in Kanazawa, Ishikawa Japan

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Biographical Information

Pitcher Ryosuke Miyaguni began his career in Nippon Pro Baseball in 2011, and first appeared at the top level, in the Central League with the Yomiuri Giants in 2012. He played for Yomiuri for 9 seasons, until 2020, after which he moved to the Yokohama DeNA BayStars, in the same league. He has played part of every single one of his seasons in the minor league Eastern League, with both Yomiuri and Yokohama's ni-gun affiliates.

Miyaguni was a starter in his first two top-level seasons, but has been a reliever ever since but never a closer. In fact, he has been credited with just 1 save in the Central League, in 2015. His rookie season in 2012 was excellent, as he went 6-2, 1.86 in 17 games, but he fell to 6-7, 4.93 in 2013 after being named his team's opening day starter, replacing ace Tetsuya Utsumi who had just taken part in the 2013 World Baseball Classic. He never developed into the star pitcher many had expected. He put up some decent ERAs over the years, for example going 4-1, 2.95 in 2016, but generally has been a middle reliever and a marginal member of his teams' pitching staffs. Yomiuri won pennants in his first two seasons, 2012 and 2013, and again in 2019 and 2020, but the team that once outrageously dominated Japanese baseball won only one Nippon Series during his tenure, when he was a 20-year-old rookie in the 2012 Japan Series. The most memorable game of his career came in Game 4 on October 31st, when he started the game against fellow youngster Masaru Nakamura of the Nippon Ham Fighters; both pitchers were excellent, not giving up any runs over 7 innings in a game that was only decided in the bottom of the 12th and final inning, 1-0 in favor of the Fighters. It was his only appearance of the series, which Yomiuri won, four games to two. The team then followed that win by also winning the 2012 Asian Series. He was the winner in the championship game of that series on November 11th, giving up 1 run in 6 innings in a 6-3 win over the Lamigo Monkeys, representing the CPBL.

By being the winning pitcher in his NPB debut on April 8, 2012, he became the first teenager to win a game for Yomiuri since Hiromi Makihara 29 years earlier. He turned 20 two weeks later.

Some sources list him as being born in Itoman, Okinawa because he represented a school from that town in the spring Koshien tournament. He was the first player in his school's history to make it to NPB.