Japan’s Foreplay Series, to decide which teams are aroused enough to compete in the season-ending championship, has selected one willing member, the Hanshin Tigers, and is now waiting another with the Orix Buffaloes entering Saturday’s Game 4 needing a win or a tie to send the Lotte Marines players and coaches back to the drawing board to plan out their 2024.
Also on Saturday, Hiroki Kokubo, who replaced Hiroshi Fujimoto as the SoftBank Hawks Western League manager in 2022, will replace Fujimoto as the team’s major league manager in 2024. We also earned that a former NPB pitcher has been arrested for murder in the United States, and I will share a story about him.
Saturday’s game
Buffaloes 3, Marines 2: At Osaka UFO Dome, Hiroya Miyagi allowed four hits and no walks over six innings, and left with a 3-0 lead, while Tomoya Mori drove in two runs and scored two for the Buffaloes who will now seek to defend their Japan Series championship against the Hanshin Tigers starting in Osaka from Oct. 28.
The series will be the first between Kansai teams since 1964, a span during which PL Kansai teams went to the Japan Series 21 times, but couldn’t synch up with Hanshin’s appearances in 1985, 2003, 2005 and 2014.
Continue reading NPB news: Oct. 21, 2023