And another diversion down the rabbit hole of Japanese high school baseball…

Team loses as ace pitcher benched for safety’s sake

That’s the front page news in Japan tonight, that 100-mph high school pitcher Roki Sasaki was left on the bench as his Ofunato High School team was eliminated from Japan’s national championship in the final of Iwate Prefecture’s summer tourney.

Sasaki threw 194 pitches in Ofunato’s fourth-round game on Sunday, and pitched again on Wednesday, throwing 129 pitches.

From Day 1, manager Yohei Kokubo has said his players win and lose as a team and it’s not about Sasaki carrying the team — which is the flip side of the philosophy that allowed Kosei Yoshida to throw 1,517 pitches combined between the Akita Prefectural tournament and the national finals according to Nikkan Sports.

Kokubo, who played pro ball in the United States in the independent minors, said that Sasaki’s muscles were still stiff from Wednesday’s game.

At least one reporter at the game demanded to know whether manager Kokubo cared more about Sasaki’s arm than victory, but surprisingly many of the comments on the internet have been supportive of his decision — something I never expected to see.

The times are changing very quickly.

The news of Sasaki not pitching dominated Japan’s sports news broadcasts Thursday night, with many either understanding or supporting manager Kokubo’s decision.

Dice-K’s manager would have pitched Sasaki

Motonori Watanabe, who managed Daisuke Matsuzaka during his extraordinary pitching feats at Koshien in 1998, said he understood manager Kokubo had a tough choice to make but he would have started Sasaki.

“I think the player himself wanted to pitch,” Watanabe told the Asahi Shimbun, the summer nationals’ sponsor. “More than anything, he strived to achieve his ambition of getting to Koshien. High school baseball is about listening to the player and as much as possible allowing him to pursue (his dream).”

In February, the National High School Baseball Federation backed itself into a corner by rejecting Niigata prefectures rules for pitch limits in that federation’s spring tournament. To extricate itself, the national federation named a panel of experts to study what could be done to prevent pitching injuries and included Watanabe on the panel.

After reviewing medical evidence, the panel concluded that pitch limits and mandated rest days would be required, but Watanabe dug in his heels.

“I hope for a broader discussion about what options we have other than instituting limits on the number of pitches,” he said.

Central League

BayStars 6, Tigers 0

At Koshien Stadium, Shota Imanaga (9-5) started out getting by with some mistakes, but picked up the pace from the third inning. He struck out four and walked one in a four-hitter for his second shutout of the season in the win over Hanshin.

“I don’t think Imanaga was in top form, but he still shut us out,” Tigers skipper Akihiro Yano said after a loss in front of 45,000. “This many people came out to see us, you’d think we’d have the courtesy to show them something in our scoring opportunities.”

With the pitcher batting eighth again for DeNA, No. 9 hitter Yamato Maeda twice helped set the table for the top of the order. He drew a leadoff walk in the third and scored on a Jose Lopez single. He followed a two-out ninth-inning single by Imanaga with an RBI double and scored his second run of the game as the top of the order drove in two runs in the four-run ninth.

The BayStars manufactured a run in the sixth, with slugging No. 2 hitter Yoshitomo Tsutsugo drawing a leadoff walk, advancing on an error and a fly out before scoring on a ground out.

Game highlights are HERE.

Swallows 8, Giants 1

At Gifu Nagaragawa Stadium, Hiroki Yamada, one of Yakult’s numerous starting pitching reclamation projects, scattered two walks and six hits to allow just a run over five innings and improve to 3-0 in a win over league-leading Yomiuri.

Taylor Jungmann returned from injury, starting for the first time since May 30 but allowed five runs in 1-2/3 innings.

Wladimir Balentien had an RBI single and homered for the fourth straight game for the Swallows.

Carp 11, Dragons 4

At Mazda Stadium, a day after Hiroshima revealed that manager Koichi Ogata had slapped around outfielder Takayoshi Noma for not running out a pop fly, the Carp changed gears and slapped around Chunichi, handing the Dragons their xth straight loss.

The Carp, who have an eight-game win streak and another of 11 in addition to an 11-game losing streak, have now won x straight.

New Carp Takumi Miyoshi’s first home run in two years, a two-run shot off Enny Romero (6-7) in the second inning opened the scoring. Ryosuke Kikuchi and Seiya Suzuki homered in a three-run fifth to help Yusuke Nomura (4-3) to his win in over a month.

Pacific League

Marines 7, Hawks 4

At Yafuoku Dome, a trio of Lotte hitters homered in the fourth inning off lefty Kotaro Otake (5-4), who, former catcher Motonobu Tanishige pointed out, went away from the successful inside pitching he started with and worked outside — where Shogo Nakamura, Brandon Laird and Seiya Inoue were waiting.

It was Laird’s 29th homer, while Inoue, whose two-run homer in the sixth iced the game, has had two, two-homer games in three nights.

Game highlights are HERE.

Lions 5, Eagles 1

At Rakuten Seimei Park, Japan’s two starting pitchers named Wataru matched up in Sendai, with Seibu’s Wataru Matsumoto (5-2) striking out eight and allowing a run over six innings in the win over Rakuten and Wataru Karashima (6-5).

Ernesto Mejia, making a rare start at DH, went 3-for-3 with an RBI double, a home run and a walk.

The Lions bullpen trio of Katsunori Hirai, Kyle Martin and closer Tatsushi Masuda combined for five strikeouts over the last three innings without allowing a base runner.

Game highlights are HERE.