We are now one week from Opening Day in Nippon Professional Baseball’s major leagues, where six games a week and six-man rotations Friday’s preseason games saw most teams’ Opening Day starters take the mound.
Yoshinobu Yamamoto was named the Pacific League champion Orix Buffaloes’ Opening Day starter on Friday when he allowed a run on five hits and no walks while striking out six over 5-2/3 innings against the Hanshin Tigers.
Shintaro Fujinami, who will start Opening Day for Hanshin after Koyo Aoyagi came down with COVID, gave up two runs, one earned on two walks and four hits while striking out six over five innings. The real good news for the Tigers was the return of second-year shortstop Takumu Nakano, who has been rehabbing all spring .
At Tokyo Dome, Lotte’s Roki “Rocket” Sasaki threw 108 pitches in his final warm-up, and touched his career-high of 163 kph, although it was a 159-kph heater that ended his night on a Kazuma Okamoto grand slam. The right-hander struck out eight, walked three, and allowed five hits over 4-2/3 innings.
Giants ace Tomoyuki Sugano surrendered five hits, three over the wall, while striking out six, walking one, and hitting one in five innings. Rubby De La Rosa worked a scoreless inning, while last year’s closer, Thyago Vieira retired none of the three batters he faced.
Brandon Laird homered and singled for the Marines, while Zelous Wheeler went deep for the Giants.
At the dome formerly known as Prince, Jose Osuna and Domingo Santana each had two hits for the Yakult Swallows, who got six strikeouts from Yoshinobu Okugawa over five innings without a walk. The Lions’ Opening Day starter, Kona Takahashi allowed a run over six innings.
At Sapporo Dome, DeNA Opening Day starter Katsuki Azuma allowed a run over seven innings while striking out seven. He walked one and hit two, while Edwin Escobar worked a scoreless inning against his old team.
The Fighters’ outstanding rookie from last year, Hiromi Ito, allowed four runs, two earned over six innings in which he struck out five and walked one. Bryan Rodriguez allowed a run in one inning of work.
In Nagoya, Rakuten’s Takahiro Norimoto allowed a run over 6-2/3 innings, while 2020 Sawamura Award winner Yudai Ono tuned up with three scoreless innings for the Dragons.
At Fukuoka Dome, the Hawks’ Yurisbel Gracial went 3-for-4 with two doubles, and Kodai Senga allowed a run over seven innings in which he struck out eight Carp batters without a walk.
Daichi Osera allowed four runs on seven hits, one a homer, and a walk, while striking out seven over six innings.
In other news, the Fighters agreed on Friday not to use language that would make players uncomfortable.
