Yakult pitcher Masanori Ishikawa (46) made his first start of the season against the Yomiuri Giants on August 27, but was pulled after recording just one out while allowing 5 hits and 6 runs.
On 5channel, commenters drew comparisons to soccer legend Kazuyoshi Miura, with many lamenting the toll of age and pointing to his diminished pitch speed, while others criticized the team’s decision to start him against the Giants.
August 27, 2026, 18:26 — Baseball
Sponichi Annex News Team
[Central League: Yakult vs. Giants (August 27, 2026, Jingu Stadium)] Yakult pitcher Masanori Ishikawa (46) was pulled after recording only one out in his first start of the season.
Source: sponichi.co.jp / Original article here
Not as close as you'd think.
Wakui, who won yesterday, actually has a better shot.
Kazu's not even in J1 anymore though.
Being a first-round pick despite that build means he had natural talent to begin with — and he's lasted this long in a league full of giants.
Yeah. Hilarious.
Still faster than Orix's Hoshino though, right?
Masahiro Yamamoto (the legendary Chunichi ace who pitched into his 50s) was actually in good form when he was throwing around that same 130 km/h range.
This has gotta be retirement.
They finally brought him up to the majors at just this moment, and this is what happens.
If Sakamoto hadn't taken it easy on him, it would've been infinite.
He's not going to pull off a Yamamoto Masa.
Don't make him sound like Gyaos (the kaiju monster — riffing on the 'adios' pun).
He's aiming to be the King Kazu of baseball. (Kazuyoshi Miura, soccer's ageless star, is nicknamed 'King Kazu')
Even yesterday they let Wakui keep his scoreless streak alive — this team's awfully kind to its old guys.
Way too easy to please (lol). It's show business in the end — popularity is all that matters.
Getting 30 more wins after turning 40 is asking way too much, surely.
With the Chunichi Dragons, it's actually plausible — they've got no other options.
Ono and Wakui won on back-to-back nights.
Translate Kazu's stats into baseball terms and he'd be batting .000-something (lol)
Exactly because it's Chunichi, it's impossible.
They're a team that just can't win.
Wakui's been with Chunichi four years now and only has 16 wins total — 5, 3, 4, and 4.
How many more years will it take to get 30 wins starting from 40?
Exactly because it's Chunichi, it's plausible.
Even around 45, Ono and Wakui will still be key pieces for them.
Background and Key Points
Masanori Ishikawa is a Yakult Swallows left-hander who, despite an unusually slight frame for a pro pitcher, was a first-round NPB draft pick and has built a long career on control and guile rather than velocity — the kind of profile Japanese fans associate with pitchers who can theoretically keep working into their late 40s if their arm holds up. At 46 he was already NPB’s oldest active player before this outing; the “one out” recorded is Japan’s 1/3-inning notation, so 5 hits and 6 runs in that span produces a nonsensical single-game ERA (posters cite “162”), a stat artifact of a tiny sample rather than a real season figure. His career win total, referenced obliquely via comparisons to teammate Kento Wakui, is still well short of the 200-win milestone that marks legendary status in Japan.
The thread doesn’t really argue about whether Ishikawa has declined — everyone agrees his fastball, now around 128 km/h, is far off his peak. The actual split is over who’s responsible: some frame it as a dignified, Kazuyoshi Miura–style athletic swan song, while others direct their anger at Yakult’s front office and past executives (Ogawa, Manaka, Takatsu) for continuing to give a diminished pitcher starts, especially against a strong Giants lineup, calling it a fan-pleasing publicity move rather than a baseball decision.
One thing likely to confuse outside readers: Wakui and the “Ono” mentioned in the later posts pitch for the Chunichi Dragons, a separate, unrelated Central League rival — the thread drifts into comparing Yakult’s aging-veteran problem to Chunichi’s, not describing Ishikawa’s own teammates.
*This article is compiled as an excerpt and summary of the 5channel (Geinou/Sports News+) thread “[Yakult] 46-Year-Old Masanori Ishikawa, Making His First Start of the Season, Pulled After 1/3 Inning With 5 Hits and 6 Runs Allowed — Records Just One Out, Complains of Discomfort Near Left Shoulder“.
