NPB news: Sept. 5, 2024

Dallas Keuchel won his first game in Japan, and if we can have a game called a Maddux, why can’t we have a Weaver, after the late Orioles manager Earl Weaver‘s “secret to success?” Hiroshima and DeNA played a see-saw game that ended in a walk-off walk.

Thursday’s games

Giants 3, Swallows 0: At Gifu Nagaragawa Stadium, Yomiuri won a Weaver as Shosei Togo (10-7), Kyle Keller and Taisei Ota combined on a one-hit shutout, and Kazuma Okamoto hit a three-run fifth-inning homer, his 22nd off lefty Taichi Yamano (1-3). Togo struck out seven, walked one and hit one while both of the relievers worked 1-2-3 innings, and Ota earned his 24th save.

Marines 3, Eagles 1: At Chiba Marine Stadium, Dallas Keuchel (1-1) allowed a run over five innings, Tatsuhiro Tamura doubled off Masaru Fujii (8-5) in the second inning and scored on an Atsuki Tomosugi single. Kyota Fujiwara singled in the third and scored on Neftali Soto‘s 15th home run.

The Eagles loaded the bases in the top of the third with one out, but a diving stop by second baseman Yudai Fujioka with one out helped Keuchel limit the damage to a run. Four relievers, including Yuki Kuniyoshi, who set a franchise record with his 22nd scoreless appearance, held the Eagles off the board the rest of the way with Naoya Masuda recording his 21st save.

Tigers 2, Dragons 1: At Koshien Stadium, Kotaro Otake (9-7) allowed a run over five innings to outduel Yudai Ono (2-6) as third-place Hanshin kept pace in the CL pennant race, three games back of the Giants. Shota Morishita broke the ice in Hanshin’s two-run third, plating Koji Chikamoto with a one-out single. Teruaki Sato‘s drive to right into the wind off Osaka Bay was caught short of the warning track for a bases-loaded sacrifice fly.

Hiroki Fukunaga doubled in Yuki Okabayashi to halve Hanshin’s lead in the fifth.

Shugo Maki, who walked and scored in the second, had his first hit of the game in the 11th, a game-tying RBI double. With no outs, the Carp walked the bases loaded, but Hikaru Ito’s two-out walk ended it, knocking the Carp out of first place.BayStars 4, Carp 3, 11 innings: At Yokohama Stadium, Kaito Kozono helped bring Hiroshima back from a 2-0 deficit with a seventh-inning RBI single, and doubled in the go-ahead run in the 11th only for DeNA to come from behind in the bottom of the inning

NPB news: Sept. 4, 2024

It’s been a few days without any game recaps as I’ve been trying to update a database to analyze the trove of pitch data I’ve been compiling for NPB games since 2020. This got supercharged Friday when Roki Sasaki turned his slider loose, and got another boost after a conversation Tuesday with a data scientist who is studying called balls and strikes in NPB. Attacking the data I did from a different direction but reaching a similar conclusion.

Spoiler alert: If you’re a Hanshin Tigers fan in need of something to complain about, I’ll provide it.

More on those later, though, after some notes about Wednesday’s games, when Shumpeita Yamashita Franmil Reyes remained on a roll, and Andre Jackson posted his third straight quality start for DeNA.

In other news, Masahiro Tanaka pitched on the farm today and threw 102 pitches over 5-2/3 innings in a game against DeNA, and said he was progressing toward being ready to resume pitching in Japan’s majors for the first time since having shoulder surgery last year.

Wednesday’s games

Swallows 3, Giants 0: At Osaka UFO Dome, Kojiro Yoshimura (6-8) scattered nine hits over the distance for his first career complete game. He struck out five but did not issue a walk.

Yomiuri’s Foster Griffin (6-4) got into his second straight pitchers’ duel against Yakult, and surrendered the first runs via the imported heart of the Swallows’ order, when Domingo Santana singled in the fourth and Jose Osuna followed with his 16th home run. Griffin struck out seven over seven innings, and Santana set up Yakult’s third run with his third hit of the game, an eighth-inning leadoff single.

Yoshimura, who allowed 14 runs over 21 innings in his last three starts, won for the first time since he threw 7-1/3 shutout innings against the Giants on June 21.

Continue reading NPB news: Sept. 4, 2024

writing & research on Japanese baseball

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