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NPB games, news of July 31

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Pacific League

Lions 2, Hawks 0

At MetLife Dome, Seibu won a pitcher’s duel over SoftBank. In the third game this season at MetLife Dome in which neither team scored more than two runs, Kona Takahashi went six innings, while Kyle Martin, Katsunori Hirai (4-1), and Tatsushi Masuda (15th save) finished up for the Lions.

Robert Suarez, who is being tested out as a starter this season, needed 105 pitches to get through four scoreless innings, and Seibu broke through for two runs in the eighth. Sosuke Genda singled and scored on a booming one-out Hotaka Yamakawa double. Yamakawa was safe on a single when he had no right to be but the Hawks couldn’t make the routine throw and tag.

The win moved the Lions to within four games of the first-place Hawks.

Game highlights are HERE.

Fighters 4, Eagles 3

At Sapporo Dome, all the action occurred in the first and seventh innings. Rakuten broke a 1-1 tie in the seventh when Zelous Wheeler singled and scored, and Nippon scored three in the home half. The first Fighters run came when Kazuhari Ishii’s RBI double stuck in the right field wall for an “entitle two base” as they say in Japanese baseball English. Three batters later, Yuya Taniguchi’s pinch-hit double broke a 3-3 tie.

Eagles right-hander Takahiro Norimoto (2-2) allowed four runs in 6-1/3 innings. He struck out six and walked one. Frank Herrmann surrendered Taniguchi’s double, while Alan Busenitz worked a scoreless eighth for the Eagles.

Former Cleveland Indians pitcher Toru Murata had his best outing of the season, three scoreless innings of relief for Nippon Ham, and Ryo Akiyoshi saved his 18th for the Fighters.

Game highlights are HERE.

Buffaloes 8, Marines 4

At Zozo Marine Stadium, Orix took the lead in the first on an error and a high casual fastball from Hideaki Wakui that pint-sized slugger Masataka Yoshida knocked into the field seats in right-center for his 20th home run. Wakui (3-7) had a “you’re not supposed to swing at those high ones, dude” look.

Orix starter Taisuke Yamaoka (8-3) contributed to what was a night of fat pitches but fared better than Wakui. Being Japan, Orix manager Norifumi Nishimura brought out his closer with a four-run lead in the ninth and Brandon Dickson

Game highlights are HERE.

Central League

Carp 3, Giants 2

At Tokyo Dome, Hiroshima’s Ryoma Nishikawa led off the game with his second first-inning leadoff homer in two days and his fourth of the month in the win over Yomiuri. Ryosuke Kikuchi followed with another and Kris Johnson (8-6) cruised. The lefty allowed four hits and two walks while striking out seven scoreless innings.

Alex Guerrero belted a two-run home run for the Giants and came within a hair of tying it in the eighth when he lined into a double play with a runner on third. Geronimo Franzua who came on to face him finished up and got five outs and his sixth save.

Old fart bunt alert

The Pro Yakyu News cast couldn’t help from drooling a little bit when Giants manager Tatsunori Hara ordered young cleanup hitter Kazuma Okamoto to sacrifice with no outs and a runner on second while trailing by a run in the eighth inning.

Mitsuru Manaka: “Even though the Giants lost, about the eighth inning Yomiuri Giants manager Hara demonstrated his persistence by ordering Okamoto to bunt.”

Masaki Saito: “He was aiming to have a runner on third with one out.”

Manaka: “Manager Hara is willing to bunt isn’t he?”

??? : “In order to win, to get this game, he’ll really play small ball.”

Manaka: “Tomorrow is Game 3. I can’t wait. Wow. What a tenacious sacrifice.”

When I first started writing sabermetric guides to Japanese baseball 25 years ago, this stuff absolutely drove me nuts, and then it was nonstop. Now it’s only once a day or so, and I’ve built up something of an immunity.

Game highlights are HERE.

BayStars 4, Swallows 3

At Yokohama Stadium, Toshiro Miyazaki’s one-out, bases-loaded single in the ninth broke a 3-3 tie and lifted DeNA past Yakult after the Swallows tied it in the eighth on a two-run Tetsuto Yamada home run.

BayStars starter Haruhiro Hamaguchi didn’t figure in the decision but was sharp, allowing a run over six innings.

The win moved the BayStars to within 3-1/2 games of the league-leading Giants.

Dragons 3, Tigers 2

At Koshien Stadium, 19-year-old Chunichi right-hander Takumi Yamamoto (1-1) allowed a run over six innings to earn his first pro win. Zoilo Almonte and Dayan Viciedo combined for five of the Dragons’ 11 hits against Hanshin.

The 1.67-meter (5’6″) Yamamoto said he hopes his first win is an inspiration to others.

“I don’t want to finish second best to pitchers who are bigger than me,” said Yamamoto. “This is just one win, but it means I faced up to it (the challenge). I think this may mean something to young kids playing ball, and maybe inspire them.”

Game highlights are HERE.

Baseball, Free, News, Paid Content

NPB games, news of July 30, 2019

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Central League

Giants 8, Carp 5

At Tokyo Dome, Emailin Montilla, the latest product of Hiroshima’s Dominican Academy, made his NPB debut, allowing three runs, two earned, in 2-1/3 innings as the Carp’s nine-game losing streak crashed to a halt.

The lefty was unlucky on some first-inning groundballs, but a basketful of fat third-inning pitches resulted in three line drives, with Alex Guerrero just settling for a two-run double when his drive struck high off the wall in left. Giants starter Shun Yamaguchi (11-2) cruised for most of the game until four runs on a pair of eighth-inning homers.

Rubby De La Rosa struck out two in a scoreless ninth for his first save in Japan.

Giants manager Tatsunori Hara became the 11th manager in NPB history with 1,000 wins and the third Giants skipper after Tetsuharu Kawakami and Shigeo Nagashima.

Game highlights are HERE.

BayStars 6, Swallows 2

At Yokohama Stadium, rookie Taiga Kamichatani (6-3) became the first DeNA rookie to win six-straight decisions, allowing two runs on Tetsuto Yamada home run. He gave up a walk and three hits in the win over Yakult.

With the game tied 2-2 in the fifth, Neftali Soto and Jose Lopez each singled in a run as the BayStars took the lead for good.

Tigers 7, Dragons 6

At Koshien Stadium, Yangervis Solarte was impactful, winning the game with a sayonara two-run homer, his second two-run shot in a game that also saw his defense at short contribute to a two-run sixth inning.

He went 4-for-4 and even as the announcers are bemoaning his defense, they can’t stop talking about him non stop.

Pacific League

Eagles 2, Fighters 0

At Sapporo Dome, Rakuten rookie Hayato Yuge (1-0) threw a two-hit shutout in his second pro start and a pair of mid-season acquisitions, Ren Wada and Ko Shimazuru, accounted for both his team’s runs against Nippon Ham.

Mitsuo Yoshikawa (0-2) was given the medium start (two trips through the batting order) for Nippon Ham but allowed two runs over four innings and the Fighters managed just two hits and a walk off of the rookie, who kept them off the barrel as he located and surprised hitters with a nice little cutter.

Game highlights are HERE.

Lions 5, Hawks 2

At MetLife Dome, Seibu’s Tatsuya Imai (6-8) allowed two runs over six innings to capture a pitchers’ duel against SoftBank’s Rei Takahashi (9-3), who allowed three over six.

The Lions speed and batting made the difference as Shuta Tonosaki set up the tying run with a stolen base, scored on a Tomoya Mori single. A Takeya Nakamura double and a Takumi Kuriyama single plated the go-ahead run and set up an insurance run and Seibu never looked back. A couple of errors by SoftBank sealed it in a two-run seventh.

Alfredo Despaigne came out of the game after striking out in the second inning. He’d complained of not feeling well before the game.

Game highlights are HERE.

Marines 4, Buffaloes 1

At Zozo Marine Stadium, right-hander Daiki Iwashita (5-3) didn’t allow a hit through 5-1/3 innings and Lotte held on behind a solo homer and RBI double from Leonys Martin to beat last-place Orix.

For the second straight game, the Buffaloes lost their first-inning leadoff runner on a strike-em-out, throw-em-out double play.

Daichi Suzuki singled in Lotte’s two other runs. In the on-field hero interview, Martin said in Japanese, “I’ll do my best, too!’

Game highlights are HERE.

News

RIP Loek van Mil

The details are still not clear, but former Netherlands international closer and Rakuten Eagles reliever Loek van Mil has died, apparently in a fatal accident in Europe.

We spoke a few times and he talked about going back to university when offers to play baseball stopped coming. They may not have been the offers he was looking for, but he kept taking them.

My favorite Loek moment came in San Francisco on the morning after the Netherlands and Japan were eliminated from the 2013 World Baseball Classic. The wife and I were walking to a lunch meeting with friends, and we walked passed the players’ hotel. There, mostly Japanese fans were waiting out on the street for players to make an appearance, when Loek came out, all 7 feet, infinity of him.

He was flustered because he didn’t know where he had to go do catch his bust to get to minor league spring training and he was late. Although he protested that he had no time, Loek patiently had his picture taken with a dozen or so Japanese baseball fans there on the street at Union Square.

By the time they left him alone, panic was in Loek’s eyes but he just sucked it up and went in search of the bus