Here are the announced starting pitchers in Nippon Professional Baseball for Thursday, June 25.
Pacific League
Eagles vs Fighters: Rakuten Seimei Park Miyagi 6 pm, 5 am EDT
Takahiro Shiomi vs DREW VERHAGEN
Drew Verhagen
Verhagen joined the Fighters in 2020 from the Detroit Tigers, where he was a 2019 teammate of Hawks pitcher Matt Moore.
Lions vs Hawks: MetLife Dome 6 pm, 5 am EDT
Keisuke Honda vs RICK VAN DEN HURK
Rick van den Hurk
Van den Hurk joined SoftBank in 2015 after a successful stint in South Korea, and was unbeaten in his first season, going 9-0.
He pitched twice in the regular season in 2019. He was held back after feeling stiffness in his lower back in March and did not make his season debut until June. Although he pitched well, he developed pain in his right elbow. He returned to duty in September and pitched well in the postseason.
Marines vs Buffaloes: Zozo Marine Stadium 6 pm, 5 am EDT
Daiki Iwashita vs Ryota Muranishi*
Central League
Giants vs Carp: Tokyo Dome 6 pm, 5 am EDT
Toshiki Sakurai vs Atsushi Endo
BayStars vs Dragons: Yokohama Stadium 6 pm, 5 am EDT
Yuya Sakamoto* vs Yuichiro Okano*
Swallows vs Tigers: Jingu Stadium 6 pm, 5 am EDT