The Fukuoka Softbank Hawks have the best record in Japanese baseball through Friday, and one big contributor to the team's overwhelming success this season is American pitcher D.J. Houlton.
The 31-year-old right-hander, in his fourth season with the Hawks, seems to be doing his best pitching since joining Softbank, and maybe in his entire professional career.
Coming to Japan after parts of two seasons (2005 and 2007) in the majors with the Los Angeles Dodgers, Houlton has had yearly records of 4-7, 11-8 and 8-6. This year so far, he is 6-2 with a 2.10 ERA, a huge improvement over the composite 3.90 posted during his first three years with Fukuoka.