Category Archives: News

NPB news: March 30, 2025

Our first weekend’s worth of games wrapped up Sunday, when the Nippon Ham Fighters, Lotte Marines and Yomiuri Giants each completed series sweeps. Naoyuki Uwasawa made his Hawks debut only for his nemesis, Neftali Soto, to turn the game Lotte’s way, with Lotte’s go-ahead run scoring on a fluke play. But first, a word from our sponsor.

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Sunday’s games

Fighters 7, Lions 5: At the roofed stadium formerly known as Prince, one long streak ended and another kept rolling.

Nippon Ham opened the season with three straight wins, something no team in the franchise had accomplished since 1962, when the Toei Flyers went on to win the franchise’s first Japan Series. Yuki James Nomura was a wrecking ball, doubling in a first-inning run, hitting a three-run third-inning homer and a two-run shot in the fifth.

Franmil Reyes went 3-for-3 with two doubles, a walk, three runs and an eighth-inning leadoff single that led to the Fighters’ final run after he was pulled for a pinch-runner.

New Lion Tyler Nevin tied the game 1-1 in the first with a sac fly to deep right that Chusei Manami nearly made interesting with a picture-perfect throw to the plate. Shuta Tonosaki homered in the fourth for Seibu, whose starter, Kona Takahashi, suffered his 12th straight losing decision. Leandro Cedeno, who joined Seibu over the winter from Orix, went 2-for-4 with a two-run eighth-inning double.

The Fighters’ Drew VerHagen allowed two runs over five innings to earn the win.

Continue reading NPB news: March 30, 2025

NPB news: March 29, 2025

We had six day games Saturday, with four teams remaining unbeaten in the two-day-old season including the Yomiuri Giants, who pummeled the Swallows behind new guys Trey Cabbage and Takuya Kai, but first a word from the sponsor…

2 free months

Through April 1, new paid subscribers will get 2 free months of jballallen.com, with unfettered access to my databases and all paid and free content without those annoying subscription nags.

I am also lining up former NPB players, both imports and Japanese, to take part in live zoom chats with members. So join in for the full ride.

I REGRET this campaign is not available to PayPal users, as it requires page editing skills I haven’t mastered… 

New memberships start are $3.25 a month, billed every two months.

Saturday’s games

Giants 12, Swallows 0: At Tokyo Ugly Dome, two of Yomiuri’s new Giants continued to mash with Takuya Kai getting three hits for the second straight day, including a home run, while Trey Cabbage homered for the second straight game and drove in four as Yuji Akahoshi and four relievers combined on a three-hit shutout. Yakult starter Kojiro Yoshimura allowed seven runs despite facing just 12 batters.

Marines 5, Hawks 4, 10 innings: At Fukuoka (Softbank Subsidiary Name) Dome, Hiromi Oka‘s three-run fifth-inning homer gave newcomer Austin Voth a 3-1 lead that he surrendered on Yuki Yanagita‘s three-run blast in the home half. Neftali Soto tied it for Lotte with a sixth-inning homer, and Oka put the Marines ahead in the 10th with a two-out RBI single and Naoya Masuda worked a 1-2-3 10th for the save.

Continue reading NPB news: March 29, 2025