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It was Central League Friday, and Munetaka Murakami kicked it off with a home run, his 53^rd and afterward paid tribute to the late Hall of Famer Katsuya Nomura, who encouraged him in his first spring training, and who for one year held the Japan single-season record with 52.

This weekend’s big CL series is between the second-place DeNA BayStars and the third-place Hanshin Tigers. The Yomiuri Giants and Hiroshima Carp went into the weekend breathing down the Tigers’ backs.

The Giants hosted the Dragons, with Shosei Togo going against Chunichi ace Yudai Ono, with the Carp visiting the Swallows, where their ace, Daichi Osera went against Yakult rookie Reiji Kozawa.

Murakami pays his respects

Munetaka Murakami’s 53^rd home run on Friday moved him past the career season highs of Hall of Famers Katsuya Nomura and Hiromitsu Ochiai, and afterward the 22-year-old remembered Nomura. The former Swallows skipper spoke to Murakami as an 18-year-old at Yakult’s minor league spring training camp.

“We didn’t speak long but we did have a chance to talk. He told me, ‘At the very least, break my record,’” Murakami said.

“At the time, I didn’t think this day would come. Now that it has happened, I would like to report to him that I have surpassed his record.”

BayStars 9, Tigers 2: At Yokohama Stadium, DeNA came back from a 2-0 first-inning deficit after Taiga Kamichatani (3-6) walked the first two Tigers hitters and both scored. Shintaro Fujinami (2-4) retired 11 of the first 12 batters he faced, before things began to go awry.

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We had a big retirement announcement, an unsurprisingly establishment view on the responsibility of management, and five games on Friday.

Kosuke Fukudome to call it quits

Former Chicago Cub, Cleveland Indian and Chicago White Sox outfielder Kosuke Fukudome, 45, announced Thursday that this will be the last of his 24 major league seasons, five of which were spent in MLB.

“Do as much as you can, because there will come a day when it ends, and you don’t want to regret what you might have done.”
-Kosuke Fukudome on his advice to young players

I haven’t been able to get through the entire hour-long presser but here are some of the tidbits:

The family

—How did your family respond?
“Nobody was crying their eyes out although there was a tear or two, but that’s how they roll. They all smiled and said, ‘Good job.’ After all, I was the one who put all the burden on them, so they were a little relieved I suppose.”
“I’m going to be able to spend a lot more time with my kids, and they told me different things they want to do, so it feels like I’m going into the life of an ordinary dad.”
—What do you want to do most with your family?
“Me, nothing in particular (laughs). I’ll give it some thought going forward I suppose.”

Playing in MLB

“I experienced good things and bad things as well, and was able to physically experience baseball played a different way. So I have to say, it was a good thing.”
“There’ are differences, just like there’s a difference between Japan’s first teams and farm teams, and the (U.S.) minors and majors. There are things you can’t really understand just from hearing about them. Because of the qualitative gap between their majors and minors, I thanked my lucky stars I’d been brought up in Japan’s system.”
“So many players taught me in so many different ways, that it was a huge learning experience for me.”
“Hardships? I guess walking around in cities and not being able to speak a word to anyone. Still, it was fun.”

What I meant to say

On Wednesday, Orix manager Satoshi Nakajima said leadoff hitter Shuhei Fukuda’s costly base-running mistake was the coaching staff’s fault, kind of in keeping with how the new wave of NPB managers have been handling these things.

On Thursday, Orix apparently took a different stance and decided that the blame lie with Fukuda, who was banished to the minors. In a lot of organizations, when the boss tells everyone it’s his responsibility, you can bet that it’s just bullshit, and that he won’t take a hit for someone else’s goof.

Of course, it could have been a decision made by the front office, but either way, it’s the kind of old-school Orix stuff we haven’t seen much of since Nakajima took over in 2020.

OK, so let’s get to the games.

Giants 6, BayStars 5: At Tokyo Dome, Yomiuri came from four runs down to beat second-place DeNA.

DeNA center fielder Masayuki Kuwahara single-handedly ruined the Giants’ third inning with a pair of superb catches, and former Giants Taishi Ota doubled and opened the scoring in the fourth on Keita Sano RBI single.

Hikaru Ito’s three-run double gave DeNA starter Fernando Romero a healthy 4-0 lead, but Takumi Oshiro blasted a three-run homer in the bottom of the fourth. Giants reliever Yohei Kagiya (2-0) pitched out of two-out two-on pickle in the fifth, and Sho Nakata hit a three-run homer off reliever Shingo Hirata (4-3).