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Eagles president: Don’t lose 1-run games
Rakuten Eagles team president Yozo Tachibana said losing one-run games was an impediment to success on Friday, when he met the press along with general manager Kazuhisa Ishii, who has been assigned to replace Hajime Miki as the club’s skipper.
“He (Ishii) has a cheerful disposition, but he’s also strict. So I want the team to enjoy winning but be tough. We lost a lot of one-run games this year, and to prevent that from happening we need to be strict,” Tachibana said.
Over and over the pair repeated variations on the theme of addressing weakness to overcome obstacles. In addition to being poor at one-run games, Ishii said the club had many strong points but was not good in do-or-die situations.
Through 49 games, the Eagles were 27-19-1 but went 28-38-7 from there to finish 2-1/2 games out of the last playoff spot.
“On Nov. 12 the team’s top executives met and decided to ask Ishii to manage,” Tachibana said. “He’s been watching the team all along and he knows the players. He’s been shaping the team but not while in uniform but now we want him in uniform so that fans can see the kind of baseball that springs from his thinking.”
Ishii has never looked overly comfortable in front of an audience although in informal settings he smiles easily. You could see that in the presser as he looked tense through much of it, particularly when Tachibana was speaking, but did warm up to the setting as time went by.
Active roster moves 11/12/2020 — none
Starting pitchers for Nov. 13, 2020
Pacific League Climax Series
Hawks vs Marines: PayPay Dome 1 pm, 12 midnight EDT
Kodai Senga (11-6, 2.16) vs Manabu Mima (10-4, 3.95)
Central League
BayStars vs Giants: Yokohama Stadium 2 pm, 1 am EDT
Kentaro Taira (4-6, 2.30) vs Tomoyuki Sugano (14-2, 2.04)
