Baseball: Former MLB pitcher Ishii out as Rakuten Eagles skipper

Kazuhisa Ishii, who won 143 games as a pitcher in Japan’s majors and 39 more in MLB with the Los Angeles Dodgers and New York Mets, is stepping down as manager of the Pacific League’s Rakuten Eagles, a team source said Wednesday.

Under the 50-year-old Ishii, the Eagles finished fourth and out of the postseason this season, the final year of his three-year contract with the Sendai-based club.

Ishii had been the team’s general manager from September 2018, while also serving as its field manager in 2021 to 2022.

On Tuesday, the regular season’s final day, a 5-0 loss to the Lotte Marines, managed ...