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NPB wrap 6-23-21

Orix streak reaches 11

The Buffaloes became the first team owned by Orix to win 11 consecutive decisions on Wednesday, when their winning streak became the franchise’s longest since 1984, when the franchise, then known as the Hankyu Braves, were on their way to the PL pennant led by triple crown-winner Boomer Wells.

NPB ‘time off’ means ‘work’

Nippon Professional Baseball, which has no official games between July 14, the start of the all-star series break, and Aug. 12 after the end of the Tokyo Olympics, announced Wednesday that its teams have scheduled 58 exhibitions with fans in the stands during that time.

Buffaloes sign Sparkman

The Pacific League’s Orix Buffaloes announced the signing of 29-year-old right-hander Glenn Sparkman on Wednesday. Sparkman was 4-14 with a 5.99 ERA in 52 major league games, of which he started 26 with 23 of those coming for the Kansas City Royals in 2019.

Buffaloes 3, Fighters 1

At Osaka‘s Kyocera Dome, rookie Kotaro Kurebayashi broke up a scoreless tie by leading off the third inning with Orix’s first hit, his fifth homer of the year, off Takahide Ikeda (3-7), who surrendered Masataka Yoshida’s 13th with two outs in the inning. Yutaro Sugimoto hit his 15th in the sixth inning to make it a 2-1 game.

Lefty Daiki Tajima (4-4) allowed a run over 5-2/3 innings while striking out eight, walking one and giving up six hits. Yang Chi, Tyler Higgins, and Yoshihisa Hirano finished up with one scoreless inning apiece with Hirano earning his ninth save.

Eagles 6, Lions 4

At MetLife Dome, Masahiro Tanaka (3-4) allowed four runs over six innings and earned his first win since May 1 after the Rakuten Eagles came from behind with two runs in the seventh against Lions rookie Yutaro Watanabe (0-1).

Tomohito Sakai, Sung Chia-hao and Yuki Matsui finished up for the Eagles with Matsui notching his 19th save. Tanaka struck out seven, walked one, hit one, and gave up eight hits. Takero Okajima brought the Eagles from behind in the seventh with a two-run triple.

Marines 1, Hawks 1

At Chiba’s Zozo Marine Stadium, Nobuhiro Matsuda tied it up with his eighth home run in the third. Lotte’s Frank Herrmann struck out the side in the seventh, and SoftBank loaded the bases with one out in the eighth against Chihaya Sasaki,, but the right-hander Olympians Yuki Yanagita and Ryoya Kurihara to escape the jam.

Lotte rookie Shota Suzuki went six innings, while SoftBank’s Nao Higashihama worked six-plus.

Dragons 6, Tigers 2

At Nagoya’s Vantelin Dome, Hanshin’s Teruaki Sato scored twice, tying the game 2-2 in the sixth with his 19th home run, which tied a record if you believe the nonsense Japan’s media pumps out. Unfortunately, Shintaro Fujinami (3-2) surrendered four runs in the seventh as Chunichi blew the game out of the water.

Fujinami walked Dayan Viciedo with the bases loaded before surrendering a three-run double to Naomichi Donoue. Chunichi’s Opening Day starter Koji Fukutani (4-6) was the fortunate winner after allowing two runs on twelve hits over seven innings. Hanshin’s Raul Alcantara gave up two runs, one earned, over six innings. He struck out six while walking one.

Giants 4, BayStars 2

At Toyama Alpen Stadium, Yomiuri’s Yoshihiro Maru hit a pair of home runs, his seventh and eighth, and drove in three runs for the second straight day to make a winner out of Shun Yamaguchi (1-0), who allowed a run in 5-2/3 innings in his first game back in Japan.

BayStars ace Shota Imanaga (1-2) gave up four runs over six innings. Kevin Shackelford and Edwin Escobar each gave DeNA a scoreless inning of relief. Thyago Vieira recorded his fourth save for the Giants.

Giants-BayStars highlights

Swallows 8, Carp 5

At Hiroshima’s Mazda Stadium, Jose Osuna’s fifth home run, a three-run third-inning shot did most of the damage against Hiroshima’s Allen Kuri (5-5), who allowed seven runs, five earned, over four innings. Norichika Aoki reached base four times, scored twice and drove in a run for the Swallows.

Shogo Sakakura was the big hitter for the Carp, reaching base three times, scoring a run and driving in two. Yakult starter Cy Sneed (2-1) got whacked for five runs, four earned, in 3-2/3 innings. Scott McGough worked a 1-2-3 ninth to earn his 14th save.

The Swallows lost Munetaka Murakami after he fouled a pitch off his right knee in the fourth inning. Manager Shingo Takatsu said Murakami wouldn’t be deactivated.

The Carp were without Seiya Suzuki, who suffered from side effects after being vaccinated for his role on Japan’s Olympic team.

Starting pitchers

Pacific League

Marines vs Hawks: Zozo Marine Stadium 5:45 pm, 4:45 am EDT

Roki Sasaki (1-0, 3.38) vs Shota Takeda (3-3, 2.43)

Buffaloes vs Fighters: Kyocera Dome (Osaka) 6 pm, 5 am EDT

Hirotoshi Masui (2-4, 3.94) vs Hiromi Ito (4-4, 2.77)

Central League

Dragons vs Tigers: Vantelin Dome (Nagoya) 5:45 pm, 4:45 am EDT

Yuichiro Okano (0-1, 9.00) vs Joe Gunkel (5-0, 2.44)

Carp vs Swallows: Mazda Stadium 6 pm, 5 am EDT

Koya Takahashi (2-2, 5.02) vs Keiji Takahashi (1-0, 2.84)

Active roster moves 6/23/2021

Deactivated players can be re-activated from 7/3

Central League

Activated

GiantsP99Shun Yamaguchi
TigersP44Raul Alcantara
BayStarsC10Yasutaka Tobashira
CarpOF59Minoru Omori
SwallowsP54Cy Sneed

Dectivated

BayStarsP48Masaya Kyoyama
BayStarsP93Koo Nakagawa
CarpOF1Seiya Suzuki

Pacific League

Activated

MarinesP35Shota Suzuki
MarinesC22Tatsuhiro Tamura
FightersP52Takahide Ikeda
BuffaloesP29Daiki Tajima
BuffaloesP98Chang Yi

Dectivated

MarinesC32Toshiya Sato
BuffaloesP19Taisuke Yamaoka
BuffaloesP49Keisuke Sawada

NPB wrap 6-22-21

Buffaloes stampede to 10th straight win

OK, not exactly their 10th straight win, because this is Japan there was a tie, but ties are essentially ignored, Orix’s streak of winning 10 straight decisions is their longest such streak since 1997 — when they were known as the BlueWave, and one year removed from the franchise’s last Japan championship behind MVP Ichiro Suzuki

Buffaloes 5, Fighters 2

At Osaka’s Kyocera Dome, Nobuyoshi Yamada worked 2-2/3 scoreless innings of relief after pitching out of a one-out bases-loaded jam in the first inning, when Orix starter Taisuke Yamaoka let in a run on a leadoff single and three straight one-out walks.

Nippon Ham starter Drew VerHagen (1-6) was the unfortunate looser in a game in which he pitched well, allowing two runs on three walks and three hits over 5-1/3 innings. Takahiro Okada tied the game in the second with his eighth home run, and Yuma Mune energized two late Buffaloes rallies. He singled, stole a base and scored in the sixth, capped by Yutaro Sugimoto’s two-run double.

Mune doubled in an insurance run in the seventh, and Sugiura singled in another in the eighth to make it 5-2. Buffaloes manager Satoshi Nakajima gave his top-tier relievers a break and the other guys got the job done, in precarious fashion.

Hawks 6, Marines 4

At Chiba’s Zozo Marine Stadium, Colin Rea (1-0) dodged five walks worth of bullets to allow one run on two hits over six hits and earn his first win in Japan. SoftBank’s leadoff man Masaki Mimori and No. 9 hitter Nobuhiro Matsuda each scored a pair of runs, while No. 2 hitter Akira Nakamura had a pair of sac flies, and No. 3 hitter Yuki Yanagita had a sac fly and two-run home run, his 16th, to make it a 6-1 game in the seventh.

Shogo Nakamura hit a two-run homer in the eighth, his fifth, and Tsuyoshi Sugano made it less of a blowout with a solo homer off Sho Iwasaki, who recorded his first save, in the ninth Lotte starter Kota Futaki (3-4) allowed all six SoftBank runs.

Lions 2, Eagles 0

At MetLife Dome, Seibu’s Aito Takeda accounted for all the scoring with a two-out two-run, fourth-inning home run, his eighth, off former Lions ace Takayuki Kishi (3-5). Kishi lasted six innings, striking out six while walking two and allowing six hits.

Wataru Matsumoto (6-3) struck out nine over eight innings. He walked four and gave up three hits. Kaima Taira stranded two runners in the ninth to earn his eighth save.

Tigers 2, Dragons 1

At Nagoya’s Vantelin Dome, Chunichi’s Sawamura Award-winning lefty Yudai Ono (3-5) gave Hanshin one scoring chance, and they made the most of it. A one-out Teruaki Sato double and a Jerry Sands walk set the table for back-to-back RBI singles by captain Kento Itohara and catcher Ryutaro Umeno.

Sato’s double was off the top of the wall at Nagoya Dome and would have been a home run at every other park in Japan except Sapporo Dome, where it would have hit the wall, or Koshien, where it would have been caught for an out because of the park’s massive power allies.

Side-armer Koyo Aoyagi (6-2) allowed an unearned run over seven innings, Suguru Iwazaki worked the eighth and Robert Suarez the ninth for his 22nd save.

Giants 6, BayStars 1

At Ishikawa Prefectural Stadium, Yomiuri’s Angel Sanchez (5-4) allowed a run over six innings, allowing six hits and hitting a batter while striking out six, while Yoshihiro Maru and career minor leaguer Takumi Kitamura each hit three-run homers. Maru’s was his sixth.

Giants-BayStars highlights

Swallows 6, Carp 1

At Hiroshima’s Mazda Stadium, Hiroshima ace Daichi Osera (2-3) surrendered four runs, one earned, in the second inning and gave up two more before leaving after six. Lefty Kazuto Taguchi (4-4) gave up nine hits but no walks over seven innings while allowing one run.

Osera kept the Swallows’ big guns quiet but his error on Taguchi’s one-out sacrifice in the second opened the door for three runs to score.

Starting pitchers

Pacific League

Lions vs Eagles: MetLife Dome 5:45 pm, 4:45 am EDT

Takeru Sasaki (0-0, 4.91) vs Masahiro Tanaka (2-4, 2.90)

Marines vs Hawks: Zozo Marine Stadium 5:45 pm, 4:45 am EDT

Shota Suzuki (1-3, 4.05) vs Nao Higashihama (1-0, 3.86)

Buffaloes vs Fighters: Kyocera Dome (Osaka) 6 pm, 5 am EDT

Daiki Tajima (3-4, 4.33) vs Takahide Ikeda (3-6, 2.79)

Central League

Giants vs BayStars: Toyama Alpen Stadium 6 pm, 5 am EDT

Shun Yamaguchi (-) vs Shota Imanaga (1-1, 3.47)

Dragons vs Tigers: Vantelin Dome (Nagoya) 5:45 pm, 4:45 am EDT

Koji Fukutani (3-6, 3.99) vs Raul Alcantara (2-1, 4.38)

Carp vs Swallows: Mazda Stadium 6 pm, 5 am EDT

Allen Kuri (5-4, 3.05) vs Cy Sneed (1-1, 4.19)

Active roster moves 6/22/2021

Deactivated players can be re-activated from 7/2

Central League

Activated

GiantsP15Angel Sanchez
GiantsOF13Takayuki Kajitani
DragonsP22Yudai Ono
DragonsC44Yuya Gunji
BayStarsP49Kevin Shackelford
BayStarsP93Koo Nakagawa
BayStarsC50Yudai Yamamoto
CarpOF5Hisayoshi Chono

Dectivated

GiantsP41Kota Nakagawa
DragonsOF51Kaname Takino

Pacific League

Activated

MarinesP18Kota Futaki
EaglesP11Takayuki Kishi
BuffaloesP19Taisuke Yamaoka
BuffaloesP26Atsushi Nomi

Dectivated

None