The SoftBank Hawks had Japan’s best offense, but while they posted a Japan-best .338 wOBA this year against right-handers, they were tied with Hanshin for second best against lefties with a .316 wOBA behind DeNA’s .319.
On Wednesday, for the second straight night, the Hawks sent seven left-handed hitters against a lefty and got similarly poor results, when the BayStars’ starters brought their “A” games.
Continue reading 2024 Japan Series Game 4: Oh, Kay!It might be recency bias, but the DeNA BayStars’ situation after dropping two games at home last weekend sure made it look like they were worse off than they had been seven years ago, when they started 3-0 to the Hawks.
Instead, SoftBank’s Carter Stewart Jr. came out tight and allowed just one run over four innings thanks to some timely strikeouts and excellent defense behind him. Because he couldn’t go deeper in the game, DeNA got to score three runs against the Hawks’ bullpen.
“I’m going to have that experience for the rest of my life,” said Stewart, whose parents and girlfriend were visiting for the series. “I went home, still had a great time seeing my family.”
Continue reading Japan Series 2024 Game 3
