Kuri pitches Carp past ‘Stars

Allen Kuri (5-5) threw his second career shutout and his first in over a year on Monday, as the Hiroshima Carp beat the DeNA BayStars 4-0 in the only game on the NPB calendar.

The 29-year-old, who was criticized a week earlier for being too cute with his breaking pitches, took the initiative with his hard stuff early, using his cutter and running fastball often.

He allowed seven hits and two walks while striking out seven, including four straight at one stretch.

Carp rookie Minoru Omori manufactured a run in the first off Masaya Kyoyama (1-1), scoring on a sacrifice fly after an infield single and a stolen base.

Seven-time Golden Glove Award-winner Ryosuke Kikuchi slammed the door on the BayStars by starting a slick double play to end the third inning that started with two on and no out. Kikuchi followed that with a leadoff homer in the home half. He doubled in a run in the fifth, and Kuri hit a chopper to second base in the seventh that brought home another run.

Kuri needed 111 pitches to get through eight innings but came back out for the ninth. Rookie manager Shinji Sasaoka continued to show a willingness to let his guys finish. He kept Kuri on the mound in the ninth with two on and one out after he walked a batter with his 128th pitch.

But Kuri responded by getting two fly outs and ending it.

For the curious, Kuri, whose father is American, has two versions of his first name. He is typically listed as “Aren”–the romanization of his Japanese name, but told me he also spells it Allen.

Giants giving pitcher Tone 2-way look

Yomiuri Giants pitcher Chiaki Tone, whom the national team’s machine-translated English roster page listed as “Chiaki Door Root”– a transliteration of the two Chinese characters in his family name — is now spending time playing left field for the Giants third team, the Hochi Shimbun reported Monday.

The 26-year-old lefty, has had an injury-plagued career. He pitched in six games in 2017, missed all of 2018 and appeared in just 26 games last year.

A left-handed hitter who was the Giants’ second pick in 2014, Tone had five plate appearances on Sunday. He doubled, singled, walked twice and struck out.

The third teams do not compete in a league but rather take part in games against corporate, club university and independent minor league teams.

Active roster moves 9/28/2020

Deactivated players can be re-activated from 10/8

Central League

Activated

None

Dectivated

Pacific League

Activated

None

Dectivated

Starting pitchers for Sept. 28, 2020

Pacific League

Fighters vs Marines: Sapporo Dome 6 pm, 5 am EDT

Naoyuki Uwasawa (7-3, 2.23) vs Ayumu Ishikawa (6-3, 4.34)

Eagles vs Hawks: Rakuten Seimei Park Miyagi 6 pm, 5 am EDT

Takahiro Norimoto (5-3, 3.52) vs Kodai Senga (6-5, 3.16)

Buffaloes vs Lions: Kyocera Dome 6 pm, 5 am EDT

Yoshinobu Yamamoto (6-3, 2.63) vs Kona Takahashi (5-7, 4.52)

Central League

BayStars vs Swallows: Yokohama Stadium 6 pm, 5 am EDT

Yuya Sakamoto (2-0, 5.06) vs Yasuhiro Ogawa (9-3, 3.34)

Tigers vs Dragons: Koshien Stadium 6 pm, 5 am EDT

Haruto Takahashi (2-3, 2.35) vs Akiyoshi Katsuno (2-3, 3.86)

Carp vs Giants: Mazda Stadium 6 pm, 5 am EDT

Atsushi Endo (2-3, 4.26) vs Tomoyuki Sugano (11-0, 1.78)