{"id":687565,"date":"2026-05-01T13:33:21","date_gmt":"2026-05-01T13:33:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/687565\/"},"modified":"2026-05-01T13:33:21","modified_gmt":"2026-05-01T13:33:21","slug":"troubling-update-on-japanese-umpire-after-being-hit-with-bat-two-weeks-ago","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/687565\/","title":{"rendered":"Troubling update on Japanese umpire after being hit with bat two weeks ago"},"content":{"rendered":"

A Japanese umpire remains unconscious more than two weeks after being struck in the head by a flying bat, according to the AFP<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Takuto Kawakami reportedly underwent emergency surgery after being hit with a bat that escaped a batter\u2019s hand during an April 16 game and landed in intensive care.<\/p>\n

He has since been transferred to the general ward of the hospital, the Nippon Professional Baseball Organization told reporters, per the AFP.<\/p>\n

Kawakami suffered the injury in his first game as a home plate umpire \u2014 per the AFP \u2014 after the Yakult Swallows\u2019 righty first baseman Jose Osuna lost control of his bat while fouling off a 2-1 offering in the eighth inning and the bat struck Kawakami in the face from the left side.<\/p>\n

The umpire immediately lifted his face mask before falling to the ground, with the DeNA BayStars\u2019 catcher immediately attending to him before two others quickly rushed to Kawakami.<\/p>\n

The other umpires made their way toward their injured comrade while an individual carried a stretcher board onto the field, with the noise from the crowd of 28,678<\/a> noticeably diminishing.<\/p>\n

Players stood and watched while a blue perimeter was established around Kawakami.<\/p>\n

Kawakami quickly went to the hospital and underwent the emergency surgery, according to the report.<\/p>\n

Osuna, a 33-year-old Venezuelan first baseman who spent four years in the majors with the Pirates from 2017-20, offered an apology on X after the scary situation.<\/p>\n

Japanese professional baseball umpire Takuto Kawakami (L) being struck and knocked down by a bat that slipped from the hands of Jose Osuna of the Yakult Swallows at the Meiji Jingu Stadium in Tokyo on April 16, 2026. JIJI PRESS\/AFP via Getty Images<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m very sorry about what happened today when my bat hit the main umpire,\u201d he posted April 16<\/a>. \u201cI hope he\u2019s well, I\u2019m really sorry.\u201d<\/p>\n

He went 2-for-4 in the Swallows\u2019 2-0 win.<\/p>\n

Kawakami is hit in the head as the bat escapes Osuna\u2019s hands. @mvpsportsmedia\/X<\/p>\n

Kawakami is attended to after being hit with the bat. @mvpsportsmedia\/X<\/p>\n

The NPB called the situation an \u201cextremely serious matter,\u201d last month, and said it would begin a safety review of the equipment being used by its home plate umpires, according to Yahoo<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Japanese umpire remains unconscious more than two weeks after being struck in the head by a flying…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":687566,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2290],"tags":[5,2372,4,185,1644],"class_list":["post-687565","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-baseball","tag-baseball","tag-japan","tag-mlb","tag-sports","tag-umpires"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116499579087282772","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/687565","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=687565"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/687565\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/687566"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=687565"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=687565"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=687565"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}