Friday saw a closer’s first career blown save and the last unbeaten team’s first loss. Altogether neither of those items are big news in themselves, the way those two games went down would have driven Japan’s curmudgeon corps to fill the next day’s sports pages with uncontrolled rage for skippers failing to conform to Japanese baseball dogma.
That’s because the blown save in the Hawks-Marines game occurred after SoftBank’s starting pitcher was yanked after (just) 117 pitches and eight shutout innings – heresy back in the day, and because Yakult Swallows skipper Takahiro Ikeyama, who has yet to sacrifice this season (Rule violation No. 1), has been batting his pitchers eighth (Rule violation No. 2), and declined to have his pitcher bunt in a sacrifice situation (Rule violation No. 3).
Japan rules and how to follow them
Since becoming a tour guide last year, I have been following Facebook groups about Japan travel and have marveled to read absolute “truths” about Japan and its culture that display a serious lack of awareness of the Japan’s social dynamics.
Since we’re on the topic of rules, Japanese society is incredibly rule-oriented, and social media pundits often interpret this as “Japanese people always follow the rules.” My favorite example is, “Japanese people take their trash home.”
That is the rule, and when out and about many, many Japanese will lug empty Starbucks cups around with them until they get home – provided they don’t first come across a convenience store whose signs read, “No personal trash in our bins,” because that’s often where it goes.
I get it. Japan is complicated.
I lived here nine years before it struck me that the groups that comprise Japanese society behaved absolutely nothing like groups I was familiar with back home in the United States. The mental picture I held in college of egalitarian cooperation at Japanese companies was shattered when I learned that groups here are often rigid hierarchies that encouraged bullying, and where blame, scapegoating, and fault-finding flow down like a waterfall.
Digression aside, Japan is complicated, and people can be forgiven for thinking that because Chat GPT and endless YouTube videos repeat the mantra that Japanese ALWAYS follow the rules, that this represents real knowledge.
So what are the rules?
Rule No. 1 is “One must never criticize the rules.” Rule No. 2 is “It is OK to break the rules, provided you make excuses for your behavior.” I loved it in the 1990s when Hawks manager Ryuki Nemoto, in the Hall of Fame for his dynasty building as an executive, batted slugging aging slugger Kazunori Yamamoto second, a clear violation of the dogma that said the No. 2 hitter should be a fast slap-hitting middle infielder or center fielder who was good at sacrificing.
Nemoto excused his behavior by saying, “I would bat someone else there but I don’t have any options.” This, of course, was nonsense, because there isn’t a Japanese team at any level that doesn’t have an offensively useless glove man on the roster.
Nemoto’s pail excuse, however, followed Rule No. 1 and Rule No. 3: “Tell obvious white lies that prevent others from feeling uncomfortable or that play down one’s accomplishments by appearing humble.”
Friday’s games
Marines 3, Hawks 2: SoftBank’s Naoyuki Uwasawa struck out nine and walked two, while allowing five hits over eight innings. Lotte rookie lefty Kaito Mori, a Fukuoka native, surrendered two runs over seven innings. SoftBank broke up the scoreless game in the seventh, on a Hotaka Yamakawa leadoff single and Ryoya Kurihara‘s second homer.
A day after Dragons manager Kazuki Inoue made excuses for giving Yudai Ono a chance to complete his start after throwing 94 pitches through eight innings – “He told me he wanted to stay in” – Uwasawa departed after his 117th pitch and the roof caved in.
Neftali Soto singled off closer Kazuki Sugiyama to open the ninth. Pinch-hitter Daito Yamamoto walked with one out, and Akito Takabe singled in a run. Hawks shortstop Isami Nomura made a good play to get the second out. With the outfield in to prevent the runner on second from scoring, Kyota Fujiwara‘s liner landed beyond the reach of right fielder Tatsuro Yanagimachi for a two-run double.
According to Chunichi Sports, it was Sugiyama’s 35th career save opportunity, and the first one he failed to convert. Still, the loss, and Uwasawa’s early-for-Japan hook, would have sent Japan’s old farts into spasms thirty years ago.
To show how much times have changed, Pro Yakyu News’ Motonobu Tanishige and Yasushi Tao focused not on the pitching change but on the Marines’ quality at-bats. Where’s Isao Harimoto when you need him?
Dragons 1, Swallows 0: Yuya Yanagi struck out five and walked one in a three-hit shutout, preventing Yakult from setting a franchise record by starting the season with six straight wins. Swallows right-hander Kojiro Yoshimura surrendered the game’s only run in the first, when Mikiya Tanaka walked, went to second on Hiroki Fukunaga‘s single and scored on Seiya Hosokawa‘s Texas leaguer.
In a game dominated by some some superb defensive plays from the two second basemen, Tanaka and Yakult’s Ryui Ito, no Swallows runner got as far as third. Yanagi gave up a smash to first base to open the ninth that Miguel Sano hung on to with an expression of visible relief on his face. One night after the Swallows came from behind in the ninth, a two-out double set up another possible comeback but Jose Osuna flied out.
The 120-pitch shutout was Yanagi’s first in four years. After starting the season with five straight losses the Dragons have posted back-to-back complete game victories following Ono’s gem against Yomiuri on Thursday.
Ikeyama didn’t quite apologize for not having Yoshimura bunt, but did say he wasn’t certain about the batting order thing, which makes tons of sense but is unpopular because it’s unorthodox.
“He (the pitcher) is the ‘ninth position player,’” Ikeyama said. “Since camp, I’ve been telling the pitchers to make sure they can hit as well, and not give away outs easily. We been putting the pitcher in the eight spot for a while. Until yesterday afternoon, I had him hitting ninth, though.”
Once more, the Pro Yakyu News crew cast no aspersions on Ikeyama’s transgressions, preferring to focus on the Dragons’ achievements and that it was a well-played game on both sides.
What is baseball coming too?
Eagles 6, Lions 3: Seibu’s Yutaro Watanabe retired the first nine batters he faced before Rakuten’s first six batters hit safely in a five-run fourth. Daisuke Nakashima and Yuma Yasuda started with back-to-back triples and Fumiya Kurokawa capped the onslaught with a three-run home run. The Lions got three back in the bottom of the inning of Kosei Shoji with Shuta Tonosaki singling in one and Alexander Canario singling in his first two runs in Japan.
Tigers 4, Carp 2: Hanshin leadoff man Koji Chikamoto reached base five times and scored twice, the first time on Shota Morishita‘s first-inning single. Morishita doubled and scored the Tigers’ second run in the sixth. In the seventh, he singled in Chikamoto and pitcher Shoki Murakami, who allowed just two runs over seven innings. Morishita helped out defensively by gunning down a runner on the bases in the first.
Elehuris Montero hit a solo homer for the Carp, and Tigers closer Suguru Iwazaki recorded his third save.
BayStars 3, Giants 1: Katsuki Azuma struck out nine while allowing a run over seven innings. DeNA catcher Yudai Yamamoto doubled with two outs in the fourth and scored on a Takuma Hayashi single. The visitors added two more in the fifth on a Shugo Maki walk, an dropped routine fly by left fielder Trey Cabbage, a Keita Sano single and two-out RBI singles from Yamamoto and Cooper Hummel, who drove in his first run in Japan. Yasuaki Yamasaki converted his second-straight save opportunity.
New DeNA skipper Ryoji Aikawa, a former Japan international catcher, admitted to being slow to pull the trigger on a pitching change. He sent Azuma up to bat in the top of the eighth with one out and none on, and the lefty had been warming up on the sidelines in preparation for pitching the eighth when Aikawa went to the bullpen.
“I simply hesitated,” he told reporters according to Full Count. “Because of that, the next batter wasn’t fully prepared, so I need to make those decisions a bit earlier.”
Fighters 12, Buffaloes 3: Hiromi Ito pitched out of a two-out bases-loaded second-inning pickle, and was rewarded with a lead in the home half on Tatsuki Mizuno‘s two-out three-run double. With a 6-0, the homer-happy Fighters finally found the range as Chusei Mannami‘s fourth home run, a three-run shot, highlighted a five-run sixth. Nippon Ham’s Yuya Gunji scored three runs, including one on a solo homer, Nippon Ham’s 18th in seven games this season. Bob Seymour singled in a run for the Buffaloes, and Ryo Ota added a two-run shot.
