Category Archives: News

NPB news: Sept. 4, 2024

It’s been a few days without any game recaps as I’ve been trying to update a database to analyze the trove of pitch data I’ve been compiling for NPB games since 2020. This got supercharged Friday when Roki Sasaki turned his slider loose, and got another boost after a conversation Tuesday with a data scientist who is studying called balls and strikes in NPB. Attacking the data I did from a different direction but reaching a similar conclusion.

Spoiler alert: If you’re a Hanshin Tigers fan in need of something to complain about, I’ll provide it.

More on those later, though, after some notes about Wednesday’s games, when Shumpeita Yamashita Franmil Reyes remained on a roll, and Andre Jackson posted his third straight quality start for DeNA.

In other news, Masahiro Tanaka pitched on the farm today and threw 102 pitches over 5-2/3 innings in a game against DeNA, and said he was progressing toward being ready to resume pitching in Japan’s majors for the first time since having shoulder surgery last year.

Wednesday’s games

Swallows 3, Giants 0: At Osaka UFO Dome, Kojiro Yoshimura (6-8) scattered nine hits over the distance for his first career complete game. He struck out five but did not issue a walk.

Yomiuri’s Foster Griffin (6-4) got into his second straight pitchers’ duel against Yakult, and surrendered the first runs via the imported heart of the Swallows’ order, when Domingo Santana singled in the fourth and Jose Osuna followed with his 16th home run. Griffin struck out seven over seven innings, and Santana set up Yakult’s third run with his third hit of the game, an eighth-inning leadoff single.

Yoshimura, who allowed 14 runs over 21 innings in his last three starts, won for the first time since he threw 7-1/3 shutout innings against the Giants on June 21.

Continue reading NPB news: Sept. 4, 2024

Baseball, Japan and authoritarian leaning

Today, a “sports” story in the right-wing Sankei Shimbun pointed out an incident at last Tuesday’s BayStars-Tigers game in Yokohama, when reliever Rowan Wick was adamant about leaving the mound when manager Daisuke Miura came out to pull him after he threw 16 pitches to three batters and Hanshin loaded the bases on two walks and a single.

According to the story, which purported to be a parable about how employers and bosses should deal with labor, Miura “showed visible emotion for the first time in his four years in charge,” and that emotion further energized the BayStars, who led 5-2 at the time to pile on five more runs in a 10-4 victory. To support that view, the article quoted second baseman Shugo Maki, the BayStars’ captain.

“It was the first time I saw the manager reveal his emotions on the field. It showed his hunger for victory, we felt we had to do our part,” Maki said.

The writer, Tetsuya Uemura, who noted that a fan in the seats behind home plate shouted, “He (Miura) should have acted like that from the very start!” and contrasted that old-school Tigers skipper Akinobu Okada.

Continue reading Baseball, Japan and authoritarian leaning