Kentaro Kuwahara (桑原 謙太朗, born October 29, 1985) is a Japanese former professional baseball pitcher.

He played in Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB) for the Yokohama BayStars from 2008 to 2010, the Orix Buffaloes from 2011 to 2014, and the Hanshin Tigers from 2015 to 2021.

He then alternated as a starter and reliever in his following appearances, and earned his first win on July 9 when he pitched 2 scoreless innings in relief against the Swallows.

He suffered from an injury during the pre-season games in 2009, and only managed to get back to the main squad in mid-August where he pitched mostly as a reliever thereafter.

But after training to adjust his mechanics, he eventually improved and finished the season with a 2.42 ERA out of 29 games (1 win, 3 losses, 2 saves).

[4] Afterwards, he and Marcos Mateo worked together as the main set-up relievers to closer Rafael Dolis during matches where the Tigers have a narrow lead.

[7] He finished the season as Hanshin's top reliever with 67 game appearances, 1.51 ERA, 39 holds, 4 wins and 2 losses.

The training made a drastic improvement in his pitching consistency, and resulted to his breakthrough performance in 2017 and his league topping K/BB ratio in 2018.