Hanshin Tigers left-hander Haruto Takahashi greets fans after pitching his third consecutive complete-game shutout in an away game against the Chunichi Dragons in Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball on the 6th. Captured from Hanshin Tigers Instagram
Hanshin Tigers left-hander Haruto Takahashi, 31, is sustaining an almost unbelievable pace in the early stages of the Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB) season. He has thrown complete-game shutouts in four of his five starts this year, including three consecutive nine-inning shutouts.
Takahashi took the mound Tuesday at Vantelin Dome in Nagoya against the Chunichi Dragons, throwing 108 pitches over nine scoreless innings to secure the shutout victory. Facing 29 batters, he struck out 10 and allowed just two hits with no walks, silencing the Chunichi lineup without issuing a single free pass.
The victory gave Takahashi his third consecutive complete-game shutout, following wins against Chunichi on April 12 and Yakult Swallows on April 29. Three straight shutouts in NPB had not been achieved since Tomoyuki Sugano (then with Yomiuri) in 2018, an eight-year gap. In Hanshin’s history, the feat had not been accomplished since Gene Bacque of the United States in 1966, a 60-year drought. Takahashi is the first left-hander in the club’s history to achieve it.
Takahashi, who debuted in a Hanshin uniform in 2018, is in his ninth year as a veteran. He had long been saddled with the unwelcome label of being injury-prone, having gone through repeated injuries and surgeries. From 2021 through 2025, he failed to surpass 50 innings pitched in any single season. Last season, he posted just a 3-1 record with a 2.28 ERA in eight appearances.
This season, however, Takahashi looks like a completely different pitcher. Starting with a shutout against the Yomiuri Giants on March 28 in his season opener, he has collected four wins in five starts (42 innings), all by complete-game shutout. His ERA stands at 0.21, having allowed just one run over 42 innings. The lone run came in his second start of the season, a six-inning, one-run outing against the Hiroshima Carp on April 5. The team lost that game 2-1. After giving up that run in the first inning, Takahashi has now strung together 32 consecutive scoreless innings.
“Everything is going so well. I’m showing everything I have,” Takahashi said in an interview after the Chunichi win. “There are moments during the 32 scoreless innings when I start thinking about how many outs are left, but such thoughts could affect my pitching, so I’m trying to stay as indifferent as possible and focus only on the batter in front of me.”