Hanshin Tigers slugger Tomoaki Kanemoto stretched his streak of playing consecutive games without missing an inning to 903 on Saturday, matching what is believed to be a major league record held by Cal Ripken Jr.
Tomoaki Kanemoto of the Hanshin Tigers hits a single during the second inning of Saturday's game against the Yokohama BayStars at Osaka Dome.
Kanemoto, who has maintained the streak since July 21, 1999 when he was with the Hiroshima Carp, is expected to break the former Baltimore Orioles star's mark set in 1982-1987 in Sunday's game against the Yokohama BayStars, the last of their three-game series against the Tigers at Osaka Dome.
"I was pleased to receive flowers, but I'm flattered," Kanemoto said. "I don't know how I'll feel tomorrow. I'll try to start the game just the way I normally do and I hope we can win it."
On Aug. 1, 2004, the 38-year-old broke the previous Japanese baseball record of playing every inning in 700 consecutive games set by former Tigers infielder Hideshi Miyake.
Kanemoto started his career with Hiroshima in 1992 as a fourth-round draft pick and moved to Hanshin in 2003 on a free agent deal. He led the Central League in RBI in 2004 and won the league's MVP award last year after leading Hanshin to its second league title in three years with a .327 average, 40 homers and 125 RBIs.
"I'm sure Kanemoto has kept stretching the record under tremendous pressure. But his effort has paid off because so many people are happy about this record," said Sachio Kinugasa, the former Hiroshima player who has a Japanese record of playing in 2,215 consecutive games, including partial appearances.
Kinugasa's mark was later broken by Ripken, who extended his record to 2,632 games.
In Japanese baseball, Yokohama BayStars infielder Takuro Ishii has the second-longest streak of 198 consecutive games without missing an inning.