Itoi wins PL stolen base crown at age 35

Yoshio Itoi finished the season as the co-leader in stolen bases with 53 for the Buffaloes. | KYODO

Yoshio Itoi became the oldest player to lead a Japanese pro league in stolen bases on Wednesday, the final day of the Pacific League season.

It was the first stolen base crown for the 35-year-old Orix Buffaloes outfielder, who swiped 53 to share the title with Seibu Lions shortstop Yuji Kaneko. Previously, the oldest base-stealing king was Daijiro Oishi, who stole 31 for the PL’s Kintetsu Buffaloes just prior to his 35th birthday in 1993.

Itoi is also the oldest player in Japan to steal 50 or more bases in a season, surpassing Japan’s all-time stolen base king Yutaka Fukumoto who stole 54 bases a year from the ages of 32 to 34.

Two members of the PL champion Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters finished the season atop marquee offensive categories. Second-year import Brandon Laird earned his first PL home run crown, edging the Seibu Lions’ Ernesto Mejia 39-35, while cleanup hitter Sho Nakata led in RBIs with 110.

The Fighters finished 2½ games ahead of the Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks despite another stellar season from Hawks star Yuki Yanagita.

Although he failed to repeat as batting champ and was limited to 120 games due to injury, Yanagita drew a league-high 100 walks, and led the PL for the second straight season in on-base percentage and slugging percentage.

Katsuya Kakunaka of the third-place Lotte Marines, who in 2012 became the first batting champion to begin his career in the independent minor leagues, won his second batting title, leading the league with a .339 average.

Although Shogo Akiyama of the Lions came nowhere near equaling the single-season hit record he set in 2015, he led the PL in runs with 98, beating last seasons’ leader, Yanagita, by a sizable margin of 16.

On the pitching side, Takahiro Norimoto of the Rakuten Eagles struck out 216 batters, becoming the first pitcher to lead his league in strikeouts for three straight seasons since Hall of Famer Hideo Nomo dominated the category for the Kintetsu Buffaloes from 1990 to 1993.

Tsuyoshi Wada of the Hawks, who returned to Japan this season after four years in the United States, won 15 games to lead the league for the second time. Teammate Dennis Sarfate broke his own league saves record with 43 to lead that category for the second straight season, while starter Kodai Senga’s 12-3 record gave him the league’s top winning percentage.

Marines right-hander Ayumu Ishikawa, who passed on a chance to match Wada with 15 wins this week so he could focus on the playoffs beginning Saturday in Fukuoka, led the PL with a 2.16 ERA.

Fighters lefty Naoki Miyanishi racked up 39 holds and three wins in relief to earn top middle reliever honors with 42 “hold points.”