Points of order

A little more than three months after Alex Ramirez told that he would not bat his pitchers eighth this year, as BayStars, he slipped lefty Haruhiro Hamaguchi into the No. 8 hole on Wednesday against Hiroshima’s Kris Johnson.

Ramirez told reporters before the game that the timing was right. Before the season, several journalists wrote that Ramirez’s policy of pitchers’ batting eighth had been severely criticized by Japan’s legion of former-player talking heads. Ironically, the move came in the wake of a move that still has the old farts reeling, moving Japan cleanup hitter Yoshitomo Tsutsugo into the No. 2 slot, a spot traditionally reserved in Japan for batters who could bunt and punch at the ball and rarely hit home runs.

On Tuesday night, former slugger Yoshiaki Kanemura, speaking on Fuji TV’s Pro Yakyu News, said, “Frankly, I think moving the Japan national team cleanup hitter into the No. 2 spot is a slap in the face.”

On Thursday, pitcher Shota Imanaga was in the eighth spot as DeNA began the day in second place, playing the third-place Chunichi Dragons.

From April 14, 2017 to Oct. 10, 2018, Ramirez had his starting pitcher bat eighth 252 times, starting with Joe Wieland, who had been a good-hitting infielder who chose pitching as a pro because he felt it would get him to the majors faster. After 15 more games with his pitchers batting ninth, Ramirez switched to the No. 8 spot until the end of the 2018 season.

Some speculate that finishing out of the playoffs for the first time since he took over the club in 2016 forced him to give up a very defensible choice. The choice is whether a position player can do more damage finishing off the heart of the order in the No. 8 spot or setting the table for the top of the order in the No. 9 spot.

Although Ramirez has been far and away the biggest recent user of pitchers in the eighth spot, he is far from a precedent setter. I have 29,811 digitized box scores in my data base in which the starting pitcher was in the batting order. Of those, roughly 95 percent batted ninth.

Shohei Ohtani, Japan’s most famous hitting pitcher, batted in the starting lineup 15 times, and never batted ninth. He is the only pitcher in my spotty records to bat first, cleanup or fifth — where he started five times. Ironically, the only spot, where I haven’t found a pitcher in the starting lineup is second.

Even with Ramirez’s eighth-place renaissance, neither 2017 nor 2018 stands as the season with the most starting pitchers batting out of the No. 9 spot. That honor goes to the first year I have records for. In 1958, NPB managers started their pitcher out of the No. 9 spot 248 times. The next year, that figure was down to 45. There were also 145 games started by a pitcher batting higher than ninth in 1970. I’ll know more if I ever get around to sorting through the digital records of the other eight or nine seasons I have floating around.

And just when it seemed that people would get tired of talking about Tsutsugo batting second, former BayStar Hitoshi Tamura discussed the issue during Thursday’s broadcast, saying that while it was OK for a DH league like the AL, putting a big hitter in the No. 2 spot when the pitcher is in the lineup is counter productive. Mind you, he didn’t mention that Ramirez is now using Maeda as a second leadoff man at the bottom of the BayStars lineup.

NPB games, news of July 17, 2019

Pacific League

Fighters 4, Hawks 0

At Kitakyushu Stadium, Kohei Arihara, the only starting pitcher FIghters manager Hideki Kuriyama trusts to face a lineup more than twice, struck out seven, while allowing four base runners over eight innings to improve to 10-4 as Nippon Ham completed a sweep of league-leading SoftBank.

The Hawks opted for a short starter, throwing Roberto Suarez (1-4), and he allowed one run in four innings but took the unlucky loss.

Game highlights are HERE.

Lions 4, Marines 3

At MetLife Dome, Seibu’s Keisuke Honda (5-3) served up three double play balls, allowing him to escape a couple of jams and allow only a run over seven innings in a win over Lotte.

But while Honda was able to get two straight comebackers to escape a no-out, bases-loaded pickle in the second, Mariners starter Kazuya Ojima (0-3) surrendered four runs in a similar predicament in the fifth, and Seibu’s bullpen held on for the win.

Game highlights are HERE.

Eagles 7, Buffaloes 3

At Kyocera Dome, Orix squandered a three-run first against Wataru Karashima (4-2), who lasted five innings, while four Rakuten relievers kept the Buffaloes from mounting a comeback.

Kohei “K” Suzuki got the short start, allowing two runs over 2-1/3 innings, but his relief was ineffective. Jabari Blash homered, reached base four times and scored twice for the Eagles.

Alan Busenitz and Frank Herrmann each worked a scoreless inning of relief for the Eagles, while lefty closer Yuki Matsui struck out two in a 1-2-3 ninth in a non-save situation.

Game highlights are HERE.

Central League

Swallows 5, Giants 4

At Jingu Stadium, HIroki Yamada (2-0) allowed three runs over five-plus innings, Norichika Aoki hit a three-run homer and Yakult’s bullpen pitched out of trouble for four-straight innings to avoid a sweep at the hands of Yomiuri.

Giants shortstop Hayato Sakamoto hit two homers and drove in three runs. He now leads the CL with his 28th. He is now 13 shy of the NPB record of home runs by a shortstop, set my Masaru Uno of the Chunichi Dragons in 1985 at home run-happy Nagoya Stadium.

Top 5 seasons, home runs by shorstops

PlayerHRsTeamLeagueYear
Masaru Uno41DragonsCL1985
Masaru Uno37DragonsCL1984
Kazuo Matsui36LionsPL2002
Takahiro Ikeyama34SwallowsCL1989
Kazuo Matsui33LionsPL2003

BayStars 3, Carp 1

At Yokohama Stadium, struggling Hiroshima put four runners on in the first inning, but scored only one run as five DeNA pitchers combined to allow three hits and five walks, while striking out 10.

Dragons 6, Tigers 4

At Toyohashi Stadium, five scoreless innings from Chunichi’s bullpen, paved the way for two eighth-inning runs off Kyuji Fujikawa (4-1) to break a 4-4 tie in a win over Hanshin.

A Yohei Oshima leadoff double, a Zoilo Almonte walk, and a two-run Toshiki Abe triple broke the tie as the Dragons won their seventh-straight game, their longest winning streak in four years.

News

Dragons lose CL batting leader Takahashi to hand injury

CL batting leader and captain Shuhei Takahashi ruptured a ligament in the little finger of his right hand on Tuesday while sliding back into first base on a pickoff throw, and was deactivated on Wednesday. A .255 career hitter, Takahashi was leading the league in batting with a .319 in his second full season.

writing & research on Japanese baseball

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