All posts by Jim Allen

sports editor for a wire service in Tokyo

NPB news: July 17, 2022

Sunday was a crazy day in the day job, and there were six games, so I’m going to get straight to them.

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Sunday’s games

Lions 4, Fighters 3: At Sapporo Dome, Katsunori Hirai (5-4) surrendered two first-inning runs on RBI singles by Kensuke Kondo and Shoma Imagawa but left the bases loaded and worked four more scoreless innings.

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1st pitch conundrums

If someone reading has any influence in Rakuten land, perhaps they can suggest Ginjiro Sumitani stop swinging at first-pitches unless he’s sitting on a pitch right down the pipe, because whatever he’s trying it isn’t working.

Through Saturday, July 16, Sumitani was tied for the least productive first-pitch swings among the 100 players with 150 or more plate appearances with Jose Osuna of the Yakult Swallows. But unlike Osuna, who takes first pitches 75 percent of the time, Sumitani takes just 50.3 percent of the first pitches he sees.

Continue reading 1st pitch conundrums