Hanshin Tigers star Shota Morishita reached a key milestone on Friday night, launching his 30th home run of the season against the Yokohama DeNA BayStars. The Tigers went on to win the game, 4-1, improving to 62-47-1 on the year.
Morishita took right-hander Kentaro Taira deep in the fourth inning at Yokohama Stadium, sending a slider into the left-field seats with a 110 mph exit velocity for a game-tying solo shot. The blast marked the first 30-homer campaign of his four-year career and moved him back into sole possession of the Central League home run lead.
In doing so, Morishita also became the first homegrown right-handed Tigers hitter to reach 30 home runs since Akinobu Okada in 1985, and the first to do so since Koshien Stadium’s famous “Lucky Zone” was removed following the 1991 season.
The milestone is the latest step in what has been a rapid rise to stardom. Morishita has improved with each passing season, going from 10 home runs as a rookie in 2023 to 16 in 2024 and 23 last year. Now, he’s reached 30 with more than a month remaining in the regular season.
Overall, the Yokohama native is slashing .293/.381/.574 with 67 RBI in 109 games. He’s also been worth 14 Defensive Runs Saved between left and right field since the start of 2025. At this point, the 26-year-old has a strong case as the best all-around player in Nippon Professional Baseball.
Ironically, he wasn’t even Hanshin’s first choice in the 2022 NPB Draft. The Tigers initially selected high school prospect Shogo Asano with their first round pick, but lost the lottery to the Yomiuri Giants and subsequently took Morishita out of Chuo University. Asano is yet to make an impact at the NPB level.
Morishita struggled to find his footing during the first half of his rookie season, but emerged as a vital part of Hanshin’s lineup down the stretch. He finished the year with a respectable 108 OPS+ in 94 games before coming through in the postseason on multiple occasions as the Tigers captured their first Japan Series championship since 1985. He hasn’t looked back since.
His ascent has extended to the international stage as well. Morishita entered the 2026 World Baseball Classic quarterfinal against Venezuela after Chicago Cubs outfielder Seiya Suzuki suffered a knee injury in the first inning. With Japan trailing in the third, Morishita blasted a three-run home run off Philadelphia Phillies left-hander Ranger Suarez to give Samurai Japan a 5-2 lead. Venezuela ultimately rallied to win 8-5 and eliminate the defending champions, but the swing gave Morishita one of the biggest moments of his career on the global stage.
Now, Morishita finds himself competing with his own teammate in the Central League Triple Crown race. Teruaki Sato currently leads the CL in both batting average and RBI, and pulled even with Morishita in the home run race after smashing his 30th of the season in the eighth inning of the same game on Friday. They became the first teammates to reach the 30-homer mark in the same game in NPB history.
It makes for a dynamic one-two punch in the heart of Hanshin’s lineup: two homegrown stars battling for the league’s home run crown while trying to lead the Tigers to another pennant. Both players are already finding themselves in Major League Baseball conversations, but for now, fans in Kansai can enjoy having two of the best bats in NPB hitting back-to-back in the lineup, with Sato and Morishita carrying elite 217 and 197 OPS+ marks, respectively.