Tetsuya Yamamoto (03)

Tetsuya Yamamoto (山本 哲哉)

• Bats Right, Throws Right
• Height 5' 10", Weight 163 lbs.

• School Kindai University
• High School Minabe High School

• Born September 4, 1985 in Hidaka-gun, Wakayama, Japan

BR register page

Biographical Information

Tetsuya Yamamoto pitched in Nippon Pro Baseball for 7 years.

Yamamoto was drafted by the Yakult Swallows in the second round of the 2009 NPB draft, but he spent his first two seasons mainly in the NPB Farm leagues, only having 9 appearances combined with the top team. He joined the bullpen of the big club in 2012, having a 1.21 ERA in 50 appearances and also notched 17 holds. Yamamoto extended his solid pitching in 2013, making a career-high 64 appearances with a 2.87 ERA, and also collected 25 holds and 11 saves. He ranked 3rd in the Central League in appearances (7 behind Kentaro Nishimura), 6th in saves (31 behind Nishimura) and 3rd in holds (15 behind Scott Mathieson). Yamamoto relieved Tetsuya Yamaguchi in the 9th inning of 2013 NPB All-Star Game 2, retiring Nobuhiro Matsuda, Yoshio Itoi and Toshiaki Imae to notch the save over the Pacific League. He then succeeded Kazuki Mishima in the 8th inning in Game 3, but he allowed a leadoff double to Dai-Kang Yang, retired Imae then gave up a pair of singles to Sho Nakata and Andruw Jones. Seiichi Uchikawa then added a two-run double, and Yamamoto got the loss.

The Wakayama native slumped a little in 2014, but he still pitched 52 games with 10 holds and a 3.55 ERA. He only had 17 appearances in 2015 due to injury, and he missed the entire 2016 season because he underwent Tommy John surgery. Yamamoto came back and pitched 32 games with a 4.76 ERA in 2017, but he only had 4 appearances in 2018, and Yamamoto announced his retirement. He became the pitching coach for Yakult's minor league team in 2021.

Overall, Yamamoto was 6-11 with a 3.07 ERA, collected 14 saves and 55 holds, struck out 124 and pitched 214 innings in 7 years in NPB.