A rookie tied an NPB record Wednesday, while Masahiro Tanaka took the mound in his season debut against a top-draft pick, two new foreign hurlers squared off against each other in Osaka, Andre Jackson began his Pacific League career with a win, and Anderson Espinosa recorded his first shutout in Japan.
Wednesday’s games
Hawks 6, Eagles 1: Winter signing Hsu Jo-hsi allowed three singles and two walks while striking out six over six scoreless innings, while Yuki Yanagita and Kensuke Kondo each belted a two-run home run in the day’s only afternoon game. The Hawks remain unbeaten through five games.
BayStars 4, Tigers 1: A pair of first-year import lefties started in Osaka. DeNA’s Austin Cox, allowed a solo homer, five singles and a walk over six innings, while Easton Lucas blew up the first inning, allowing three singles and two walks as the BayStars took a 3-0 lead. Toshiro Miyazaki hit a solo homer in the third, and Shota Morishita homered for the Tigers in the sixth.
Buffaloes 4, Lions 0: Orix’s Anderson Espinosa struck out seven and walked one in a 110-pitch five-hit shutout, his first since moving to Japan in 2024. The Buffaloes opened the scoring in the sixth against Seibu’s Kona Takahashi on a walk, a hit batsman, three singles, a fielder’s choice and two of rookie catcher Taiga Kojima‘s record-tying three passed balls. Kojima became the 12th player to manage this feat, with the last being Seibu’s Kazuhiro Wada, later a CL MVP outfielder, with the Chunichi Dragons, in 2001.
Giants 6, Dragons 5: Yomiuri’s Masahiro Tanaka earned the 123rd win in Japan and the 201st of his big league career. Spotted a three-run first-inning lead, Tanaka left with two on and two outs in the sixth after Miguel Sano‘s RBI single made it a 4-2 game. Yuji Akahoshi retired the only batter he faced to strand both runners. Shunsuke Sasaki singled in two runs in the first and homered in the sixth for the Giants, while Trey Cabbage and Bobby Dalbec each doubled in a run in the seventh. Chunichi’s Yuki Fukunaga’s two-run home run capped a three-run Dragons seventh to make it a one-run game again.
Right-hander Masaki Nakanishi, the Dragons’ top draft signing from last autumn, allowed four runs on six hits, a hit batsman and a walk over 5-1/3 innings in his pro debut as Chunichi remained winless at 0-5.
Marines 4, Fighters 2: Lotte captain Neftali Soto opened the scoring with a three-run fourth-inning jack off Japan international right-hander Koki Kitayama, while Andre Jackson, another player who made his NPB start with the BayStars before enlisting with the Marines, tossed five scoreless innings in his Pacific League debut.
Franmil Reyes just missed tagging Jackson for a first-inning homer and had to settle for a double, but Chusei Mannami cleared the fences for the third time this season, after Jackson left the game.
Swallows vs Carp: Rained out.
