Central League
Giants 8, Carp 5
At Tokyo Dome, Emailin Montilla, the latest product of Hiroshima’s Dominican Academy, made his NPB debut, allowing three runs, two earned, in 2-1/3 innings as the Carp’s nine-game losing streak crashed to a halt.
The lefty was unlucky on some first-inning groundballs, but a basketful of fat third-inning pitches resulted in three line drives, with Alex Guerrero just settling for a two-run double when his drive struck high off the wall in left. Giants starter Shun Yamaguchi (11-2) cruised for most of the game until four runs on a pair of eighth-inning homers.
Rubby De La Rosa struck out two in a scoreless ninth for his first save in Japan.
Giants manager Tatsunori Hara became the 11th manager in NPB history with 1,000 wins and the third Giants skipper after Tetsuharu Kawakami and Shigeo Nagashima.
Game highlights are HERE.
BayStars 6, Swallows 2
At Yokohama Stadium, rookie Taiga Kamichatani (6-3) became the first DeNA rookie to win six-straight decisions, allowing two runs on Tetsuto Yamada home run. He gave up a walk and three hits in the win over Yakult.
With the game tied 2-2 in the fifth, Neftali Soto and Jose Lopez each singled in a run as the BayStars took the lead for good.
Tigers 7, Dragons 6
At Koshien Stadium, Yangervis Solarte was impactful, winning the game with a sayonara two-run homer, his second two-run shot in a game that also saw his defense at short contribute to a two-run sixth inning.
He went 4-for-4 and even as the announcers are bemoaning his defense, they can’t stop talking about him non stop.
Pacific League
Eagles 2, Fighters 0
At Sapporo Dome, Rakuten rookie Hayato Yuge (1-0) threw a two-hit shutout in his second pro start and a pair of mid-season acquisitions, Ren Wada and Ko Shimazuru, accounted for both his team’s runs against Nippon Ham.
Mitsuo Yoshikawa (0-2) was given the medium start (two trips through the batting order) for Nippon Ham but allowed two runs over four innings and the Fighters managed just two hits and a walk off of the rookie, who kept them off the barrel as he located and surprised hitters with a nice little cutter.
Game highlights are HERE.
Lions 5, Hawks 2
At MetLife Dome, Seibu’s Tatsuya Imai (6-8) allowed two runs over six innings to capture a pitchers’ duel against SoftBank’s Rei Takahashi (9-3), who allowed three over six.
The Lions speed and batting made the difference as Shuta Tonosaki set up the tying run with a stolen base, scored on a Tomoya Mori single. A Takeya Nakamura double and a Takumi Kuriyama single plated the go-ahead run and set up an insurance run and Seibu never looked back. A couple of errors by SoftBank sealed it in a two-run seventh.
Alfredo Despaigne came out of the game after striking out in the second inning. He’d complained of not feeling well before the game.
Game highlights are HERE.
Marines 4, Buffaloes 1
At Zozo Marine Stadium, right-hander Daiki Iwashita (5-3) didn’t allow a hit through 5-1/3 innings and Lotte held on behind a solo homer and RBI double from Leonys Martin to beat last-place Orix.
For the second straight game, the Buffaloes lost their first-inning leadoff runner on a strike-em-out, throw-em-out double play.
Daichi Suzuki singled in Lotte’s two other runs. In the on-field hero interview, Martin said in Japanese, “I’ll do my best, too!’
Game highlights are HERE.
News
RIP Loek van Mil
The details are still not clear, but former Netherlands international closer and Rakuten Eagles reliever Loek van Mil has died, apparently in a fatal accident in Europe.
We spoke a few times and he talked about going back to university when offers to play baseball stopped coming. They may not have been the offers he was looking for, but he kept taking them.
My favorite Loek moment came in San Francisco on the morning after the Netherlands and Japan were eliminated from the 2013 World Baseball Classic. The wife and I were walking to a lunch meeting with friends, and we walked passed the players’ hotel. There, mostly Japanese fans were waiting out on the street for players to make an appearance, when Loek came out, all 7 feet, infinity of him.
He was flustered because he didn’t know where he had to go do catch his bust to get to minor league spring training and he was late. Although he protested that he had no time, Loek patiently had his picture taken with a dozen or so Japanese baseball fans there on the street at Union Square.
By the time they left him alone, panic was in Loek’s eyes but he just sucked it up and went in search of the bus
