The Eagles and Hawks matched up with first place in the Pacific League on the line, Masahiro Tanaka took the mound for the Giants for the first time at Koshien Stadium, and we got a taste for why it can be a pain in the butt to manage the Hanshin Tigers.
Thursday’s games
Buffaloes 7, Lions 1: Although the Lions are in last place, this was the first time this year, they’ve been swept in a three-game series.
Orix tied a record for consecutive wins at Osaka Dome with eight that the Buffaloes set in 2021, when the franchise won its first Japan Series since 1996, the year Ichiro Suzuki won his third straight Pacific League MVP as the Orix BlueWave’s headliner.
Swallows 2, BayStars 0: DeNA dropped its fifth straight game to Yakult. BayStars starter Jon Duplantier allowed two runs, one earned, in four innings in his first outing since a bout with influenza. With two out and two on in the second inning after the first of Yakult starting pitcher Kengo Matsumoto‘s two hits, Swallows No. 9 hitter Kazuya Maruyama singled in a run. In the third, Jose Osuna doubled and scored on a shallow fly to left that Cooper Hummel got to and fumbled.
“We weren’t going to win this game unless we defended well,” said Baystars manager Ryoji Aikawa, who was asked if Hummel’s failed catch in windy conditions was preventable. “Yes it was. This is pro baseball after all.”
Osuna also did some damage to the umpiring crew, when he ended home plate ump Takuto Kawakami’s night, smacking him on the head with his bat as he followed through on a swing. Kawakami left the stadium on a stretcher.
Yakult’s first-year closer, Jose Quijada was helped out of a ninth-inning jam, when Maruyama made a catch at the wall to open the inning, allowing the lefty to strand two runners and earn his seventh save.
Hawks 6, Eagles 0: SoftBank’s Ryosuke Otsu matched a career-high 11 strikeouts, allowing four singles and no walks over six innings as the Hawks avoided a three-game sweep at the hands of the Eagles. Yuki Yanagita hit a three-run first-inning homer. Isami Nomura doubled in a run in the second, Hotaka Yamakawa homered in the third, and Kensuke Kondo doubled and scored his second run of the game in the seventh on a Yanagita single.
The Eagles’ loss prevented them from taking over first place in the PL for the first time since June 23, 2022, which since Japanese sports papers love their big digits, the Nikkan Sports informs us was 1,393 days earlier. Makes one wonder why they don’t count the minutes.
Giants 4, Tigers 3: Masahiro Tanaka won his first game at Koshien Stadium as a participant in the storied Hanshin Tigers-Yomiuri Giants storied rivalry, allowing three runs on seven hits and no walks over six innings after getting a first-inning lead courtesy of Bobby Dalbec‘s three-run homer off lefty Easton Lucas. Teruaki Sato took Tanaka deep in the first for a two-run shot. The Giants’ Trey Cabbage singled in a run in the third, and Takumu Nakano‘s sac fly made it a one-run ballgame in the fifth, when Tanaka escaped further trouble by striking out the red-hot Shota Morishita. Tanaka’s win was the 202nd of his big-league career.
“This is about what we expected,” Giants manager Shinnosuke Abe said after the teams’ 10th straight one-run game at Koshien.
It’s tough to be a Tigers skipper
The Hanshin Tigers may be one of Japan’s most successful teams, but, according to a friend who was the Hochi Shimbun’s Osaka sports editor for a decade, the fanbase is rooted in the inevitability of failure, and every season involves a media quest to supply the fans with a scapegoat. After this loss, the media sharks smelled Lucas’ blood in the water, and opened the door for skipper Kyuji Fujikawa to supply them meat to chomp on.
“He just needs to settle in and get used to things. It’s still April, and it’s not easy for any player,” Fujikawa said afterward of Lucas’ performance.
The local media is perhaps the biggest minefield Tigers managers have to navigate, and Fujikawa’s ability to apply the brakes, is a good sign. The last two skippers, Akihiro Yano and Akinobu Okada were as good at that as anyone.
Marines 5, Fighters 3: Lotte came from behind to win consecutive games for the first time since the second day of the season. Nippon Ham opened the scoring in the third on a Tatsuki Mizuno sacrifice fly and a wild pitch, but starting pitcher Haruki Hosono gave the lead away in the home half. One run scored on a walk, a hit batsman, a single and a ground out. Marines captain Neftali Soto tied it with a run scoring single and Yudai Fujioka put the hosts in front with a sacrifice fly. Nippon Ham’s Kota Yazawa tied it with his second homer of the season, in the fourth. The Marines’ Ryusei Ogawa led off the sixth and scored the go-ahead run on a Gregory Polanco pinch-hit single. Ogawa then singled in former Fighter Hiromi Oka for a seventh-inning insurance run.
