Yasuyuki Kawamoto

Yasuyuki Kawamoto (河本 育之)

• Bats Left, Throws Left
• Height 5' 8", Weight 171 lb.

• High School Tabuse Technical High School

• Born October 21, 1967 in Kumage-gun, Yamaguchi Japan

BR Register page

Biographical Information

Yasuyuki Kawamoto pitched in Nippon Professional Baseball for 16 years and once led the league in saves.

Kawamoto was drafted by the Chiba Lotte Marines in the second round of the 1991 NPB draft, and he soon became an important part of Lotte's bullpen. He was named their closer as a rookie, and collected 19 saves with a solid 2.58 ERA. He ranked 2nd in saves in the Pacific League, 3 behind Motoyuki Akahori and lost the PL Rookie of the Year award to Shigetoshi Hasegawa. Kawamoto was also selected into the 1992 NPB All-Star Game, pitched two shutout innings in Game 2 and pitched a shutout inning with two strikeouts (against Kaoru Okazaki and Norihiro Komada) in Game 3.

The Yamaguchi native extended his solid performance in 1993 as he collected 18 saves with a 3.09 ERA, and ranked 2nd in saves again, 8 behind Akahori. Kawamoto slumped to 6-6 with a 4.21 ERA in 1994 and Toshihide Narimoto took his spot, but he bounced back soon. The young closer notched 10 saves with a solid 1.64 ERA in 1995 and collected 10 saves with a 2.78 ERA in 1996. Kawamoto notched a league-leading 25 saves with a solid 1.96 ERA in 1997, but he lost the Fireman of the Year award to Akahori because he had two more save points. He also broke the team record for 12 consecutive saves without any blown saves. In the 1997 NPB All-Star Game 1, he pitched 2 innings with 4 strikeouts (Komada, Teruyoshi Kuji, Takuro Ishii and Motonobu Tanishige), allowing two hits as part of a combined shutout of the Central League. He had taken over from Isao Kida in the 7th and was replaced by Hiroshi Kobayashi.

However, the 1997 season was Kawamoto's last productive season because he injured his left shoulder in 1998 so he only pitched 25 games. He recovered in 1999 but his ERA rose to 4.50, and the Marines traded him to the Yomiuri Giants for Hiroo Ishii. Kawamoto struggled again with the Giants as his ERA was never lower than 4 in the next four seasons, and the Giants traded him to the Nippon Ham Fighters for Hayato Nakamura after the 2003 season. Kawamoto came back with a solid 2.86 ERA in 29 relief outings in 2004, and the Rakuten Golden Eagles signed him. However, he slumped to a 7.27 ERA in 13 games in 2005. Although he collected 12 saves for Rakuten in 2006, his ERA was 4.88, and he announced his retirement after allowing 5 runs in 4 2/3 innings in 2007. After retiring, he coached the Giants from 2010 to 2012.

Overall, Kawamoto was 36-43, collected 95 saves with a 3.57 ERA, struck out 634 and pitched 637 2/3 innings in 16 seasons in NPB.

Sources

• Wiki Japan
• NPB.com Bio