Sheldon Neuse makes another big catch, Matt Davidson strikes again, Hayato Sakamoto gets a hit and Nippon Ham gets a win in Saturday’s action across Nippon Professional Baseball.
There are also a couple of notes that failed to get in yesterday’s blog about a pair of Samurai Japan players, and I’ll start with those.
Hiroya Miyagi, who didn’t see a lot of action with the national team in the WBC, entered Friday’s game to Atsushi Nomi’s walk-on theme. The former Hanshin Tigers ace, who retired last autumn, spent the final two years of his career with Orix, and was working the game for radio.
Samurai Japan’s pitchers are now 7-0 in the regular season between MLB and NPB.
Hiroshima’s Ryoji Kuribayashi, pitching in his first game since lower-back tightness knocked him off the roster before Pool B started in Tokyo, earned his first save Friday, and compared it to his 2020 rookie of the year season.
“The adrenaline was pumping like it hadn’t since I was a rookie,” Kuribayashi said after ending the game by striking out former teammate Hisayoshi Chono with the tying runs on base.
Saturday’s games
Carp 6, Giants 3: At New Hiroshima Citizens Stadium, Matt Davidson hit a solo homer, his third, off Giants starter Foster Griffin (1-1) in the first inning, and Ryan McBroom doubled in a run in Hiroshima’s three-run fourth. Shogo Akiyama tripled in a pair of runs to make it 6-0 in the fifth and chase Griffin. Davidson has now had an RBI in five straight games.
Continue reading NPB news: April 8, 2023
