On Wednesday in Japan, Takahiro Matsuba beat out Makoto Aduwa to win the day’s Shohei Ohtani Award, the Carp proved they can too score, and the Buffaloes wasted Leandro Cedeno‘s first multi-homer game, while former Cub Tsuyoshi Wada got sharp on the farm as he prepares for his belated season debut.
Wednesday’s games
Dragons 6, BayStars 1: At Yokohama Stadium, Kenta Kozono (0-1), making his first career start for DeNA, issued a pair of first-inning walks and former BayStar Seiya Hosokawa put the league-leading Dragons on the board. The Dragons scored twice in the second on a leadoff Takuya Kinoshita single, two bunt singles – including one from starting pitcher Matsuba, a groundout and a scratch infield single from Shuhei Takahashi.
A Seiji Uebayashi walk and a Kinoshita infield single set up a two-run inning, with Matsuba singling in one and Hironori Miyoshi‘s dinky infield single bringing in the other. Tyler Austin doubled in a run for DeNA in the third only for Matsuba to retire nine of the next 10 BayStars and leave with a 6-1 lead after Sho Nakata singled in Miyoshi in the sixth.
Matsuba allowed a run on two hits and two walks over 5-2/3 innings in his season debut.
Carp 6, Tigers 2: At Koshien Stadium, Takayoshi Noma was not robbed of a leadoff hit as he was Tuesday, doubling to open the game against Masashi Ito (1-1) before scoring on a ground out, snapping a 36-inning scoreless streak. Takashi Uemoto singled with one out and Tsubasa Aizawa doubled him home to make it 2-0 in the second. Starting pitcher Makoto Aduwa (2-0) kept the inning alive with a fluke two-out infield single, and three straight hits made it 6-0, earning Ito an early exit.
Masato Morishita‘s third homer put the Tigers on the scoreboard in the fourth, and Teruaki Sato chased Aduwa in the sixth by doubling in Takumu Nakano. Hanshin brought the tying run to the plate with two outs before Takahisa Masuda retired pinch-hitter Sheldon Neuse.
Aduwa struck out nine while allowing two runs on six hits and a walk over 5-2/3 innings.
Marines 3, Lions 2, 10 innings: At Seibu Dome, Seibu appeared headed for a second straight shutout loss after not being shut out all season, but still lost in extras after Neftali Soto singled in the tie-breaking run in a luckless 10th-inning from Lions closer Albert Abreu.
C.C. Mercedes started for Lotte and threw five scoreless innings, while Lions rookie Natsuki Takeuchi left the bases loaded in the first, but Lotte grabbed the lead against him in the third, when the lefty hit Gregory Polanco and Koki Yamaguchi doubled him in with two outs. A Shogo Nakamura double and an Atsuki Tomosugi single made it 2-0.
Veteran Lions outfielder Yuji Kaneko prevented it from becoming 3-0 in the eighth when he robbed Yamaguchi of an RBI double with a catch against the fence, before leading off and scoring Seibu’s first run in 18 innings in the home half off Hirokazu Sawamura.
Takeya Nakamura‘s 472nd career home run tied it with one out off Rikuto Yokoyama (1-0), but the Marines got a run against Abreu (0-1) in the 10th on a flare single, an error, a sacrifice and a line single from new Marine Neftali Soto off a fat pitch.
Rakuten 5, Orix 4, 10 innings: At Osaka UFO Dome, Leandro Cedeno hit two home runs, but Daichi Suzuki had a hand in three different run-scoring innings as Rakuten got past Orix.
Cedeno homered to open the second off Takayuki Kishi before the Eagles small-balled to a tie in the third with a Suzuki leadoff walk, a sacrifice and a one-out RBI single from Ryosuke Tatsumi off Taito Takashima.
Suzuki singled to lead off Rakuten’s three-run second. Another bunt and a Tatsumi infield single put runners on the corners. Kazuki Murabayashi followed a botched squeeze with a two-run triple and scored on a Yuya Ogo single.
The Buffaloes tied it in the eighth on Keita Nakagawa‘s second single and Cedeno’s second home run, off Sung Chia-hao, but the Eagles broke the tie after two were gone in the 10th on three straight singles off Soichiro Yamazaki (0-1), with Suzuki’s hot shot back to the box bringing home the run. The Buffaloes got the winning run to second against new Eagles closer Takahiro Norimoto, but the former ace stranded two to earn his second save.
Wada sharp in farm tune-up
SoftBank’s 43-year-old Yutaka Wada, who was to start the Hawks’ home opener until developing a blister on his left middle finger in his final warmup game, made his season debut on the farm, allowing four hits and no walks in six scoreless innings in a Western League game against Orix.
“I feel a little more at ease, comparing my allowing no runs today to how I’d pitched up until now this spring,” Wada said. “I still have some issues with my control, and I have to get to the bottom of that. From the standpoint of feel for my pitches, it’s getting to the point where it’s been good in the past. More and more I’m throwing pitches I can challenge hitters with.”
