Shingo Ono

Shingo Ono (Sunday Shingo) (小野 晋吾)

• Bats Right, Throws Right
• Height 5' 10", Weight 180 lb.

• High School Gotemba Nishi High School

• Born April 7, 1975 in Sunto-gun, Shizuoka Japan

BR register page

Biographical Information

Shingo Ono has pitched for over a decade in Nippon Pro Baseball.

Ono was picked by the Chiba Lotte Marines in the 6th round of the 1993 NPB draft. He tossed three shutout innings as a rookie in 1997 and one in 1998. Ono had a 3-3, 4.34 record in 1999. He became a regular in the Chiba Lotte rotation in 2000 and went 13-5 with a 3.45 ERA. 11 of the wins came on Sundays, earning him the nickname "Sunday Shingo". He was second in the Pacific League in ERA behind Nobuyuki Ebisu and was second in wins, one behind Daisuke Matsuzaka. He made his only PL All-Star team.

Shingo was 10-9 with a 3.74 ERA in 2001 to place 6th in the league in ERA. He fell to 5-8 in 2002 despite improving his ERA to 3.41. Had he qualified, he would have finished 7th in ERA. In 2003, the right-hander was just 2-4 with a 5.26 ERA and .317 opponent average. He had a 4-3, 3.45 record and .302 opponent average in 2004, working mostly in relief.

Returning to the rotation in 2005, he rebounded to 10-4, 2.81. Had he qualified, he would have been 5th in ERA between Fumiya Nishiguchi and Dan Serafini. Bobby Valentine used him as a reliever in the 2005 Japan Series sweep of the Hanshin Tigers and he allowed four hits but no runs in 1 2/3 IP (Valentine used a rotation of Naoyuki Shimizu, Shunsuke Watanabe, Hiroyuki Kobayashi and Serafini). It was the Marines' first Japan Series title ever.

In 2006, One remained strong at 7-7, 2.66. He was 5th in the PL in ERA behind Kazumi Saitoh, Matsuzaka, Tomoya Yagi and Tom Davey. He went 11 consecutive starts without a win in 2007, finishing with a 7-9, 3.25 record and only 28 walks in 135 2/3 IP. Ono struggled with injuries in 2008 and was 5-4 with a 6.50 ERA and .342 opponent average. In 2009, he turned in a 8-7, 3.81 record. Through that season, he was 74-63 with a 3.64 ERA in 232 career games, with 367 walks in 1,212 1/3 IP. Not a hard thrower, he had only 653 strikeouts overall.

Ono's repertoire includes a shuuto, slider, cutter, forkball and fastball (peak 90 mph).

Related Sites

• Ono's Official blog