Teruaki Sato of the Central League-winning Hanshin Tigers became the first Triple Crown winner since Munetaka Murakami in 2022 as the Nippon Professional Baseball regular season wrapped up Thursday.
The 27-year-old Sato had 39 home runs and 106 RBIs while batting .306 and led all three categories in the CL to become the ninth player to achieve the feat.
Chicago White Sox slugger Murakami won the Triple Crown four years ago when he was at the Yakult Swallows, becoming the youngest to do so at 22.
Sato is the first Tiger to claim the honor since Randy Bass reached the milestone in both 1985 and 1986.
"I wasn't thinking about the Triple Crown, but I wanted to raise my batting average," Sato told reporters. "I thought the results would follow if I did that. I'm glad I was able to build things up little by little and get this far."
"I have come to understand my own batting better and to look objectively at both its good and bad aspects," said Sato, who began his professional baseball career in 2021 after playing for Kindai University in Osaka.
Having been named the CL MVP last season with 40 homers and 102 RBIs, Sato again led the Tigers at the plate this year to help them to their first back-to-back CL pennants.
The latest figures could also boost his chance of securing his long-standing hope of playing in MLB.
Haruyasu Nakajima of the Tokyo Giants, now Yomiuri, was the first Triple Crown winner in 1938. Katsuya Nomura of the Nankai Hawks, now SoftBank, was the first in the post-war period in 1965 before Sadaharu Oh of the Giants followed in 1973 and 1974.
Hiromitsu Ochiai of the Lotte Orions, now Marines, did it a record three times in the 1980s when Boomer Wells of the Hankyu Braves, now Orix Buffaloes, won it once and Bass twice.
Nobuhiko Matsunaka of the Daiei Hawks, now SoftBank, was the first to join the list this century in 2004.
