Yearly Archives: 2019

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NPB games, news of Sept. 8, 2019

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Tough to Swallow

Junji Ogawa announced Sunday for the second time in six years that he no longer wants to manage the Central League’s Yakult Swallows. The team is in last place and has been eliminated from playoff contention. Ogawa took over last year and led the Swallows to second place. In six seasons over two terms, he has led them to the postseason three times.

Head coach Shinya Miyamoto, who was expected to take over after a brief coaching stint, said he wants no part of the job either. One potential candidate to manage is current farm manager and former pitching coach Shingo Takatsu.

If Takatsu does take over, he’ll become the second Japanese former major leaguer to manage a top-flight NPB club after fellow former White Sox infielder Tadahito Iguchi took over the Pacific League’s Lotte Marines in 2018.

Pacific League

Hawks 9, Marines 6

At Yafuoku Dome, Lotte’s Brandon Laird homered, reached base four times and drove in four runs, but SoftBank came back against starter Atsuki Taneichi to tie it in the seventh inning on a pinch-hit RBI single by Keizo Kawashima. Kenji Akashi’s eighth-inning pinch-hit double put the Hawks ahead in the eighth before Kawashima doubled in an insurance run.

Hawks starter Shota Takeda put the home team in a bind by allowing four runs over four innings. Taneichi allowed six runs in 6-1/3, and the Marines bullpen let the game get away further.

Game highlights are HERE.

Lions 3, Eagles 2

At Rakuten Seimei Park, Takeya Nakamura doubled in two runs for Seibu and Hotaka Yamakawa doubled in another run in the eighth after Rakuten’s Jabari Blash tied it in the sixth with his 31st home run.

Game highlights are HERE.

Fighters 2, Buffaloes 0

At Sapporo Dome, the future and past crossed paths as former Orix ace Chihiro Kaneko (6-4) matched his season-high of six innings to outpitch the Buffaloes best young pitcher Yoshinobu Yamamoto (6-5), who held Nippon Ham to an unearned run over six innings.

Yamamoto was on the mound for the first time since straining his left oblique muscles on Aug. 3. He allowed three hits and struck out six without issuing a walk.

The Fighters’ future and past also collided as their former closer, Hirotoshi Masui surrendered a solo homer to up-and-coming slugger Kotaro Kiyomiya.

Game highlights are HERE.

Let’s pretend it never happened

For some reason, Nippon Ham Fighters manager Hideki Kuriyama has decided to ditch the idea of openers and short starters. On Sunday, Chihiro Kaneko worked six innings, marking the first time this season that Fighters starters have worked six innings or more in three consecutive games.

They have also equaled the team’s longest streak of consecutive five-plus inning starts.

Mizuki Hori, who had been dynamite as the opener, has been demoted to the farm, where he is pitching occasionally and striking out batters, something one imagines would be more useful on the first team.

It’s almost as if there was a purge and evidence of the experiment, Hori, has been sent into exile in the team’s Kamagaya gulag.

Central League

Dragons 5, BayStars 2

At Nagoya Dome, Chunichi’s Yudai Ono (8-8) lost his bid for a shutout when DeNA’s Neftali Soto hit his 36th home run, a two-run shot in the ninth. The win was Chunichi’s sixth straight after sweeping the league’s top two teams, the Giants and BayStars.

As they have for the past week or so, the Dragons continued to be tenacious at the plate and on the bases. Yota Kyoda legged out a triple in the fourth inning and scored from third on a foul pop down the first base line. With Ono cruising, Nobumasa Fukuda essentially put the game away in the sixth with a two-run double.

Carp 3, Tigers 2

At Mazda Stadium, Hiroshima’s Hisayoshi Chono singled in two runs and made a good catch in left field to help Kris Johnson (11-7) earn the win over Hanshin with six scoreless innings.

Geronimo Franzua entered the game with two outs in the eighth and a runner on second. He surrendered an RBI double to make it a 3-2 game and walked the next batter before retiring the last four he faced to earn his 11th save.

Baseball, Free, News

NPB game, news of Sept. 7, 2019

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I’ll admit, Paul Simon probably won’t be updating the Joe DiMaggio line in “Mrs. Robinson” to account for Yangervis Solarte’s departure from the Hanshin Tigers, but the CL club was indeed wondering where he’d gone after he failed to report to the farm team.

Solarte, who sparked joy into the Tigers after stepping into the starting lineup soon after his arrival from the States, was demoted to the farm team on Aug. 19 after batting .188 in 80 plate appearances.

The Tigers announced his signing on July 7, and arrived 14 days later. He practiced on July 23, played in a farm game the next day and was activated for first-team duty on July 26. After hitting four home runs in 20 games, he was gone.

The Tigers were anticipating his activation on Friday, but he informed manager Akihiro Yano that he was “unmotivated” and was returning to Osaka.

Central League

Dragons 8, BayStars 3

At Nagoya Dome, Yuya Yanagi (10-5) bounced back from allowing two first-inning home runs to work seven innings and earn his first win since July 7 as Chunichi came from behind to beat DeNA.

“I felt in my bones how hard just one win is to come by,” said Yanagi after achieving a new career high in wins.

BayStars rookie Taiga Kamichatani (6-6) gave up the lead in the bottom of the first and then made things hard on himself by rushing on a sacrifice bunt and juggling the ball for an error, and then throwing a two-strike forkball in the strike zone when it didn’t need to be. The pitch was hit for an RBI double in Chunichi’s four-run second.

Tigers 7, Carp 3

At Mazda Stadium, Yuki Nishi (7-8) allowed three runs over eight innings. He allowed 11 hits but no walks, and escaped more trouble by serving up three double play ground balls as Hanshin beat Hiroshima.

Giants 10, Swallows 6

At Jingu Stadium, Hayato Sakamoto doubled twice and hit his 36th home run, scoring three runs and driving in two to pace Yomiuri past Yakult. Alex Guerrero homered to open the fourth and break a 3-3 tie as the Giants snapped a six-game losing streak

Pacific League

Marines 4, Hawks 0

At Yafuoku Dome, Yuji Nishino (2-2), who has spent the bulk of his career as a reliever — including three seasons as Lotte’s closer — threw a four-hitter for his first career shutout to beat SoftBank.

Tsuyoshi Wada (4-4) surrendered two runs over 4-1/3 innings to take the loss. Nishino allowed the first two runners to reach in the first and fourth innings. The Hawks tried to steal a run in the fourth, but Yurisbel Gracial was out at home on a delayed double steal to end the inning.

Leonys Martin, whose two dropped balls in center were instrumental in both of SoftBank’s runs on Friday, iced the game for the Marines in the sixth with a two-run home run.

Game highlights are HERE.

Fighters 8, Buffaloes 7

At Sapporo Dome, Taishi Ota singled four times, scored three runs and drove in one, while Ryo Watanabe singled, homered, scored twice and drove in four as Nippon Ham held off Orix.

The Fighters rocked Andrew Albers (2-4) for six runs, five earned, over three-plus innings, while Kohei Arihara (14-7) allowed four runs over six innings to earn the win, giving away three runs in the sixth after he had an 8-1 lead.

Ryo Akiyoshi struck out the side in the ninth to earn his 21st save.

Game highlights are HERE.

Eagles 5, Lions 3

At Rakuten Seimei Park, Rakuten whacked Seibu starter Kona Takahashi (10-6) for four runs in the fourth inning — two scoring on Hiroaki Shimauchi’s tie-breaking two-run double.

Game highlights are HERE.