NPB play resumed Monday, a national holiday, after the all-star break with a full slate. The big result was the Hiroshima Carp beating the DeNA BayStars in Yokohama as the three-time defending champs won for the first time since June 25. During that 12-game stretch, they lost 11 and played one tie.

Central League

Carp 8, BayStars 5

At Yokohama Stadium, DeNA starter Shoichi Ino couldn’t locate his pitches at the start, and Hiroshima punished him for it, scoring six runs in three innings. Carp right-hander Allen Kuri, who had recorded his team’s last win on June 25 in his first career shutout, allowed three runs over six innings.

Giants 7, Swallows 4, 11 innings

At Nagano Olympic Stadium, a single and a two-base throwing error on former major league pitcher Ryota Igarashi (5-1) on a sacrifice bunt broke an 11th-inning tie and Yoshiyuki Kamei finished off Yakult with a two-run home run.

The Swallows led 4-3 in the eighth, but lefty David Huff surrendered a leadoff single to Yang Dai-kang and an RBI double to Christian Villanueva.

Scott Mathieson (1-1) worked a 1-2-3 10th inning to earn the win, while Ruby de la Rosa struck out two in a scoreless inning in his NPB debut

Dragons 4, Tigers 2

At Nagoya Dome, Chunichi lefty Yudai Ono (6-6) allowed two runs over eight innings as the Dragons scored two runs off of Hanshin’s all-star middle reliever Pierce Johnson (2-2) to take the lead in the eighth. Raidel Martinez worked a 1-2-3 ninth to record his seventh save

Pacific League

Fighters 5, Hawks 1

At Yafuoku Dome, Kensuke Nakata capped a four-run first inning against with a two-run triple — a double that got past left fielder Yurisbel Gracial — as Kotaro Otake (5-3) allowed five runs over 4-2/3 innings. Nippon Ham’s win snapped the club’s six-game losing streak to SoftBank.

Two three-inning stints from Mizuki Hori and Bryan Rodriguez (4-2) held SoftBank to a run, and three relievers, Naoya Ishikawa, Naoki MIyanishi and Ryo Akiyoshi allowed one hit while striking out six and walking one.

Hori faced nine batters, and the guys on TV were going, “Don’t you want to see him stay in the game and see what he can really do?” But manager Hideki Kuriyama limits how many times batters get to look at his pitchers, and even the talking heads had to admit it’s kind of working.

Game highlights are HERE.

Marines 6, Lions 5

At MetLife Dome, both starters went six innings despite giving up four runs through two. Tomoya Mori doubled and scored in the sixth to put Seibu in front, but former Yankee Brandon Laird hit his 25th home run in the seventh off former Red Sox pitcher Kyle Martin (2-4), a game-changing two-run shot for Lotte, whose players were wearing their Hawaiian shirt jerseys.

The Lotte bullpen put two runners on in each of the last three innings but did not allow a run.

Game highlights are HERE.

Eagles 6, Buffaloes 2

At Kyocera Dome, Rakuten’s Hiroaki Shimauchi had three hits including a triple, scored a run and drove in three to lead Rakuten past Orix. Shu Sugahara (1-2) allowed two runs over five innings in an emergency start after Takahiro Shiomi was scratched.

Game highlights are HERE.

The world did not end on Monday, although considering the urgency two different broadcasts placed on Japan cleanup hitter Yoshitomo Tsustugo batting second for the first time in his life, it seemed some kind of cataclysm was in the making.

As many of you probably know, the No. 2 hitter is the Area 51 of Japanese batting orders. It’s the weird-shit-goes-on-there-but-don’t-ask-questions spot. From box score data I have access to, the No. 2 spot has been the seventh weakest spot in both teams’ lineup based on aggregate OPS.

This is a development, I believe, from the canonization of the sacrifice bunt that took place between 1975 and 1990, that dictated that the No. 2 hitter’s job was primarily to make productive outs. The irony is that at the same time the bunt was being spoken of as the secret to winning, home runs were beginning to fly out of Japanese parks.

Here are the figures from 2003 to 2016 — my current era box scores go back to 2003.

NPB OPS by batting order

And here are the past two seasons below. As you can see, the No. 2 spot has kind of undergone an upgrade recently.

OPS by batting order 2017-2018

Nomura gets sick over this revolting development

Despite these changes, the two broadcast crews were pretty taken back. Here’s a snippet translated from the TBS broadcast, with former BayStars pitcher Hiroki Nomura doing the color commentary:

Nomura: He can say he’s going to keep the same approach, but the question is how he’s going to feel when there’s no outs and a runner on first…

<Carp No. 2 hitter Ryosuke Kikuchi comes to the plate with the leadoff man on first, doubles down the left field line to set up a four-run inning.>

Nomura: It would be hard to avoid that urge (to play small ball).

<Tsutsugo bats in the 5th inning.>
Announcer: I’m not used to saying, ‘Batting 2nd, Tsutsugo.’
Nomura: Frankly, it makes me feel queazy.

And here are some takes from another broadcast with former Carp ace Kazuhisa Kawaguchi providing the somewhat more enlightened commentary.

It’s all about the batting order

Analyst: Kazuhisa Kawaguchi
Announcer: Kei Fukuzawa

F: No. 2 Tsutsugo. Manager Ramirez said I want a high on-base percentage guy batting second. He has not hit well with runners in scoring position but he does get on base. So he wants him to get on base.
F: So in the first appearance as No. 2 in his life, Tsutsugo flies out to right.
K: Yes. He got him to hit his pitch.

<Neftali Soto steps in.>

<Ball 1 to Soto>

K: He (Tsutsugo) gets on base a lot as a No. 4 hitter, so for me what I’d like him to see is keep that same approach unchanged.
K: If he can’t do that, his results will get worse.
F: If you look at his last 5 seasons…
<Soto fouls off 2-0 pitch>
…he has basically batted 3rd or 4th.
K: No. 3 was not that long either…
F: Of course, one aspect of this may be motivation for the individual from manager Ramirez’s standpoint.
<Soto flies out to short>
F: No. 3 Soto flies out. Three outs, inning over.

<New inning and the camera focuses on Tsutsugo walking to left field.>

<Strike 1 to Carp batter Kosuke Tanaka>

F: The Carp are in an 11-game losing streak, and now we’re back from the all-star break as we begin the second half of the season.

<Strike 1 to Tanaka>

F: Tsutsugo, batting 2nd for the 1st time in his life, flew out, and the BayStars failed to score in the first inning.

<Ball 1 to Tanaka, 1-1>

F: The Carp are now batting in the second…

I’m glad to say that as runs were scored, and there was a game to talk about both broadcast crews kind of got over the whole thing.