page_title: Toshiya Sugiuchi
section_title: 2009
hierarchical_section_title: Toshiya Sugiuchi / Professional career / 2009
caption_attribution_description: English: Toshiya Sugiuchi, pitcher of the Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks, at Chiba Marine Stadium. 日本語: 福岡ソフトバンクホークス投手の杉内俊哉。千葉マリンスタジアムにて。
context_page_description: Toshiya Sugiuchi is a Japanese baseball player. He is a left-handed starting pitcher for the Yomiuri Giants.
  Sugiuchi was the Eiji Sawamura Award winner in 2005. He has had some of the most international experience of any active Japanese baseball player, pitching in the 2000 Sydney and 2008 Beijing Olympics as well as the 2006 and 2009 World Baseball Classics.
context_section_description: In 2009, Sugiuchi was selected to the national team to play in the second World Baseball Classic, his fourth time playing in major international competition. He was used solely as a reliever, pitching 6⅓ hitless innings in five appearances. He came on to replace Eagles ace Hisashi Iwakuma in the second match against Cuba in the second round, throwing three shutout innings and being credited with a save. He was also used as a left-handed specialist in the tournament finals against South Korea.
  On April 5, in his first start of the regular season against the Orix Buffaloes, Sugiuchi struck out five over 7⅔ innings to bring his career strikeout total to 1003. He was the fourth-fastest pitcher in NPB history to amass 1000 career strikeouts (following Hideo Nomo, Kazuhisa Ishii and Yutaka Enatsu), doing so in 979⅓ innings. He became the 318th pitcher in Japanese professional baseball to amass 1000 career innings in a start against the Eagles on April 26, but gave up four runs (three earned) over seven innings en route to his first loss of the season. He had a strong outing on May 10 against the Saitama Seibu Lions, striking out 12 over eight innings and allowing just one run and improving his record to 11–0 in the month of May since 2007.
caption: Sugiuchi during his tenure with the Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks in 2009
exif: {}