Yoshihisa Naruse

Yoshihisa Naruse is a Japanese baseball player. He is a pitcher for the Orix Buffaloes of Nippon Professional Baseball. He made his debut in the 2006 season. In 2007, Naruse had his best season as a professional in his short career. All season long he was competing with Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters superstar Yu Darvish for the Eiji Sawamura Award, the award for best pitcher in all of Japan. In 24 starts, Naruse was 16–1 with a 1.82 ERA, with 138 strikeouts and only 27 walks in 173 and 1/3 innings. Darvish, by comparison, was 15–5 in 26 starts, also compiling a 1.82 ERA, but not only did he throw more complete games than Naruse, but Darvish also threw more innings, but he struck out more batters, with 210 punch-outs. The two ended up facing each other in the 2007 Pacific League Championship Series' deciding Game 5. Darvish triumphed over Naruse at Sapporo Dome, and the Fighters won Game 5 and the series 3–2, setting up a rematch of the 2006 Japan Series with the Chunichi Dragons. Naruse ultimately lost out to Darvish for the Sawamura Award in 2007.