NPB news: June 13, 2023

Hiroto Takahashi threw his first career complete game Tuesday, Yoshinobu Yamamoto and rookie Shoki Murakami locked up in a duel, Yomiuri’s Yohander Mendez returned from injury with a big game, and Kohei Arihara won his first game since returning to Japan.

Tuesday’s games

Buffaloes 2, Tigers 0: At Koshien Stadium, Yoshinobu Yamamoto (6-2) struck out 11 over eight innings, and Hanshin made two errors leading to a run in the fourth on an RBI single by Keita Nakagawa off Shoki Murakami (5-3). The Tigers rookie struck out nine in eight innings and also surrendered a Marwin Gonzalez’s eighth home run. Soichiro Yamazaki worked the ninth to earn his second save.

Tigers-Buffaloes highlights

Dragons 7, Marines 0: At Nagoya Dome, Chunichi’s young Hiro, Hiroto Takahashi (2-6) struck out nine while walking two in a five-hitter, while Seiya Hosokawa and rookie Hiroki Fukunaga each reached three times and scored twice.

Takuya Kinoshita singled in Fukunaga in the second inning as the Dragons became the second straight team to score six runs off Kazuya Ojima (5-2). Hosokawa walked in the fourth, Dayan Viciedo doubled and both scored on a Fukunaga double. Hosokawa hit his seventh homer, in the sixth with a man on, and Viciedo followed with his second. Fukunaga doubled and scored in the eighth.

Dragons-Marines highlights

Eagles 6, Carp 3: At New Hiroshima Citizens Stadium, Daichi Osera (2-5) cruised through three innings, but Takero Okajima hit a three-run homer in the fourth, and the Eagles tacked on two more. The Carp made it a 5-3 game in the sixth, when doubles by Ryoma Nishikawa and Matt Davidson chased Takahiro Norimoto (3-4). Yuki Matsui worked the ninth for his 12th save.

Giants 3, Lions 0: At Tokyo Dome, Yohander Mendez (1-1) worked six innings in his first start, Kazuma Okamoto doubled in a third-inning and Yoshihiro Maru hit his fourth homer in four games in the fourth. Taisei Ota earned his 13th save.

Hawks 5, Swallows 1: At Jingu Stadium, Kohei Arihara (1-0) allowed a run in six innings, Akira Nakamura opened the game with his third home run, off Yasuhiro Ogawa (3-6), who then allowed Kensuke Kondo’s two-run homer in the fifth. Kenta Imamiya hit a two-run homer in the seventh.

Norichika Aoki accounted for Yakult’s run with his second homer.

Swallows-Hawks highlights

Deniers 5, Fighters 3: At Yokohama Stadium, Shota Imanaga (4-1) allowed two runs over seven innings, while Taiki Sekine and Masayuki Kuwahara drove in a run each in the second and fourth innings. Yasutaka Tobashira doubled twice, singled, walked and scored twice for DeNA. Go Matsumoto had three hits and homered for the Fighters. Yasuaki Yamasaki earned his 16th save.

DeNA-Nippon Ham highlights

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NPB news: June 12, 2023

Japan had no baseball on Monday, but there was news. Sponichi Annex reported this morning that Nippon Professional Baseball is looking into implementing a pitch timer as early as next season, something it dismissed adding last summer.

On Sunday, I presented the research to support my assertion that the Yomiuri Giants’ astonishing success at getting 1-0 called strikes was absolutely not a result of that team’s talent, but this morning I discovered an interesting trend in how Japanese umpires’ balls-and-strike calls changed after pitch tracking data began to be used to evaluate umps in 2018.

These two things may seem quite divergent, but they do converge around the idea of how Japanese baseball deals with subjective judgement calls. So let’s get to it.

Japan looks to speed up

A year ago, Japan’s rules committee opted to hold off on implementing MLB’s pitch timer and its associated rules to see how it flies overseas. Yet, the news is that having watched MLB’s nine-inning game lengths shrink by 30 minutes, NPB wants the rules committee to look into it, using the excuse that the 2026 World Baseball Classic is certain to have a pitch timer and it would behoove Japan-based players to get used to it before that.

Because NPB and MLB games beat to different drummers, literally, this news was met with some criticism from fans who feel their cheer songs and chants will be a victim of the need for speed. I’m no longer a part of that scene the way I was 30 years ago, but I shudder to think how my favorite oenka, like the theme from “Otoko wa Tsurai” being played on a trumpet when Nippon Ham’s Tetsuro Hirose would come to bat at Tokyo Dome, would be shredded. It was electric.

Continue reading NPB news: June 12, 2023

writing & research on Japanese baseball

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