The coronavirus is marching through the NPB schedule like William Tecumseh Sherman’s road trip through Georgia. Although no additional games were canceled Wednesday, the Hanshin Tigers lost their scheduled starting pitchers for Thursday, Masashi Ito, and Friday, Shintaro Fujinami.
Meanwhile, Tsuyoshi Shinjo and the Nippon Ham Fighters put their only winning streak on the line at Seibu Dome, where they come face to face with “the whip.”
Ready to go? Let’s get started.
Lions 4, Fighters 3: At Seibu Dome, Junichiro Kishi singled and scored on a first-inning Brian O’Grady double off right-hander Kazuaki Tateno (1-1). Wu Nien-ting then singled in O’Grady for a 2-0 Lions lead.
After Wataru Matsumoto (2-1) retired the first nine, O’Grady and company made it 4-0 in the third. Shohei Suzuki opened with a single and scored after a sacrifice on O’Grady’s second double. Shuta Tonosaki singled in O’Grady with the Lions’ final hit of the game.
The Fighters got to Matsumoto in the fifth on Yuki James Nomura’s leadoff double and Kazunari Ishii‘s second home run. Arismendy Alcantara doubled in the seventh and Ishii singled him home.
Kaima Taira relieved Matsumoto in the eighth and struck out the side, while Tatsushi Masuda pitched out of a two-on no-out jam in the ninth to earn his third save.
When O’Grady reaches base, he extends his arms and bows his head sort of. But what started as his thing is now a team thing. I’ll let him explain.
“It’s called the whip. I’m not even doing it right. It’s a stupid dance. It’s something me an my wife do messing around. I told her I would do it when I got a hit, so she knew it was for her, and the team noticed and thought it was funny and now here we are. And everybody gets on base and my wife thinks it’s hilarious.”
“I think it’s awesome that everybody does it.”
How come DEVO’s “Whip it” isn’t his walkup music?
Dragons 1, Tigers 0, 10 innings: At Nagoya Dome, Jumpei Ogawa, pressed into duty as an emergency starter for Hanshin and held the fort for 4-2/3 innings while Hanshin’s bullpen kept it scoreless through nine.
Dragons right-hander Akiyoshi Katsuno went hitless for the first time this year, which is not much worse than how the Tigers faired as a team. He struck out eight, walked one and allowed two singles over seven innings.
Yariel Rodriguez struck out two in the eighth, Raidel Martinez two in the ninth, and Tatsuya Shimizu (3-0) worked a perfect ninth in which he fielded two of the three groundouts he served up to earn the win.
Ren Kajiya (0-1) worked a 1-2-3 ninth for the Tigers but gave up a one-out double to Yota Kyoda and an RBI single to the gap by Yohei Oshima that won it.
Dragons-Tigers highlights
Giants 4, BayStars 3: At Naha Onoyama Stadium, Yoshihiro Maru blasted his fifth homer, a three-run shot, while Neftali Soto drove in one of DeNA’s runs and scored the other two. Giants lefty C.C. Mercedes left with two on and no outs in the sixth and a two-run lead. One of the inherited runners scored, but the Giants bullpen otherwise locked it down until Taisei Ota recorded his eighth save, the most in franchise history for a rookie.
The Giants had been one of just two NPB teams that had never had a rookie save eight games in a season, the other being the defunct Kintetsu Buffaloes, whose record was also seven, set by former Padres closer Akinori Otsuka in 1997.
Carp 5, Swallows 1: At Matsuyama Botchan Stadium, Hiroshima lefty Hiroki Tokoda (2-0) pitched out of three tough spots to hold Yakult to a run on seven hits and a walk over six innings.
Tsubasa Aizawa sparked a three-run second against Hirotoshi Takanashi (2-1) with a leadoff double. Shota Dobayashi doubled him in, Takashi Uemoto reached on an error, Tokoda sacrificed, and Ryosuke Kikuchi singled in two with two outs.
Uemoto was hit by a pitch on the face guard of his helment to open the fourth by a kind of eephus curve, that everyone must have thought was pretty funny, since no move was made to hand Takanashi an automatic ejection for a dangerous pitch. Kikuchi singled him home, too, while Aizawa plated an insurance run in the seventh.
Reserve Swallows outfielder Daiki Hamada homered in the sixth for Yakult’s only run.
Swallows-Carp highlights
Thursday’s starting pitchers
Hawks vs Marines: Fukuoka Dome 6 pm, 5 am EDT
Kodai Senga (2-0, 0.82) vs Kota Futaki (1-0, 0.00)
Dragons vs Tigers: Nagoya Dome 6 pm, 5 am EDT
Yuya Yanagi (1-0, 2.81) vs Takuma Kirishiki (0-1, 6.14)
Active roster moves 4/13/2022
Deactivated players can be re-activated from 4/23
Central League
Activated
| Tigers | P | 40 | Yuya Onaka |
| Tigers | P | 54 | Ren Kajiya |
| Tigers | P | 69 | Daichi Ishii |
| BayStars | P | 11 | Katsuki Azuma |
Dectivated
| Tigers | P | 18 | Kosuke Baba |
| Tigers | P | 19 | Shintaro Fujinami |
| Tigers | P | 27 | Masashi Ito |
| Tigers | IF | 00 | Yasuhiro Yamamoto |
Pacific League
Activated
| Fighters | P | 33 | Kazuaki Tateno |
Dectivated
| Hawks | P | 39 | Shuto Ogata |
| Hawks | P | 70 | Sota Tanoue |
