The Pacific League opened its week with Masahiro Tanaka, Yoshinobu Yamamoto and new import Burch Smith all throwing and one of those three was super, while we had a Maddux on a night with three shutouts.

The Central League schedule looks like some kind of placing playoff as the first-place Yomiuri Giants hosted the second-place Carp, the third-place Chunichi Dragons with ace Yudai Ono took on the fourth-place Yakult Swallows, while the fifth-place DeNA BayStars hosted the last-place Hanshin Tigers.

Ready to go?

Tuesday’s games

Hawks 3, Buffaloes 0: At Osaka Dome, Shuta Ishikawa (1-0) outpitched Yoshinobu Yamamoto (3-1), whose streak of winning consecutive decisions was stopped at 18 as he took his first loss since last May.

Without his “A” game, Yoshinobu Yamamoto needed his fielders to make the routine plays and they didn’t. Two singles were followed by back-to-back throwing errors, as the Hawks took a 2-0 sixth-inning lead on two runs, one earned.

Yamamoto struck out seven over eight innings without allowing a walk but gave up six hits. Ishikawa had his prototypical start, four walks, two hits and 10 strikeouts over seven innings. Tatsuru Yanagimachi singled in a run in the ninth, while Katsuki Matayoshi worked the eighth and Livan Moinelo the ninth, earning his second save.

Fighters 2, Eagles 0: At Miyagi Stadium, Masahiro Tanaka (2-1) looked a little rusty in his first game in two weeks—thanks to Orix calling in sick last week. After pitching one of his best games since coming back to Japan his last time out, he didn’t get settled in until after he issued a leadoff walk to Kazunari Ishii in the second and threw a meatball to Shingo Usami that he hit down the line for his first home run.

But credit to lefty Takayuki Kato (2-1) threw a three-hit, one-walk, six-strikeout Maddux, and probably deserved to give up some runs, but got some excellent defense behind him, particularly from Ishii at second base while a bunch of hard-hit balls went straight into his teammates’ gloves.

The shutout was the second straight for the Eagles after Sunday’s 1-0, 10 inning win over the Marines.

Lions 4, Marines 0: At Seibu Dome, Burch Smith (1-0), a former Padre, Royal, Brewer, Giant and Athletic, is continuing his pro baseball odyssey in Japan and won his PL debut with Seibu striking out five and walking one in seven no-hit innings against Lotte, who’ve been shut out now for 19 innings straight. Kaima Taira struck out two in the eighth, but allowed Lotte’s only hit in the eighth, while Tatsushi Masuda worked the ninth.

Aito Takeda homered for the second straight game, hitting a three-run shot in the second off lefty Kazuya Ojima ( ), who allowed four runs over six innings to take the loss

Brian O’Grady started in center for the Lions and made a good catch on a flare to shallow center to keep the Marines hitless in the second. He led off the sixth with a single, so we could witness “the whip,” while Hotaka Yamakawa returned to the Lions lineup, as DH, for the first time since hurting his leg running the bases on March 30 and singled to put two on.

Wu Nien-ting, who walked and scored in the second, drove in O’Grady with a sac fly.

Giants 3, Carp 1: At Tokyo Dome, Shosei Togo (3-1) allowed a run over eight innings, Hayato Sakamoto hit his third home run, off Allen Kuri (1-1), and Kazuma Okamoto singled in one in a two-run fifth, while Giants rookie Taisei Ota worked the ninth for his 10th save.

Giants-Carp highlights

BayStars 5, Tigers 4: Yokohama Stadium, Hanshin knocked out Fernando Romero, who allowed four runs in two innings, but Yuki Nishi (1-1) blew his four-run lead as DeNA came back behind a 4-for-4, two-double night from Toshiro Miyazaki, who scored Taishi Ota with a one-out double in the fifth to break a 4-4 tie.

Teruaki Sato, had three hits, including a first-inning double and his fifth home run, a second-inning solo shot and walked, but a sextet of BayStars relievers held the Tigers to two hits and three walks over the final seven innings. Kenjiro Tanaka (1-0) earned the win, and Kazuki Mishima his first save.

BayStars-Tigers highlights

Swallows 12, Dragons 4: At Nagoya Dome, poor pitches and poor fielding saw Yudai Ono (1-2) get hammered for six runs, five earned, over four innings. Yasutaka Shiomi doubled in two in the first after Ono walked Tetsuto Yamada and Munetaka Murakami.

Cy Sneed (1-0) led 5-0 with one out in the fourth before the Dragons had their first base runner on an infield single, and Dayan Viciedo blasted his second home run to make it 5-2. Takaya Ishii chased him with an RBI double in the Dragons’ two-run seventh.

José Osuna went 4-for-5 with a double and a three-run homer, his second, while Murakami chipped in with his fourth homer.

Dragons-Swallows highlights

Wednesday’s starting pitchers

Eagles vs Fighters: Miyagi Stadium 6 pm, 5 am EDT

Takayuki Kishi (1-0, 2.08) vs Cody Ponce (-)

Lions vs Marines: Seibu Dome 6 pm, 5 am EDT

Wataru Matsumoto (2-1, 5.09) vs Manabu Mima (0-1, 3.60)

Buffaloes vs Hawks: Osaka Dome 6 pm, 5 am EDT

Hiroya Miyagi (0-2, 6.48) vs Tsuyoshi Wada (0-0, 1.69)

Giants vs Carp: Tokyo Dome 6 pm, 5 am EDT

C.C. Mercedes (3-0, 2.08) vs Hiroki Tokoda (2-0, 0.90)

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

Katsuki Azuma (0-2, 5.40) vs Ippei Ogawa (0-2, 6.11)

Dragons vs Swallows: Nagoya Dome 6 pm, 5 am EDT

Hiroto Takahashi (1-1, 5.73) vs Yasuhiro Ogawa (0-1, 5.40)

Active roster moves 4/19/2022

Deactivated players can be re-activated from 4/29

Central League

Activated

Tigers	OF	97	Dan Onodera
Giants	P	47	Yuki Takahashi
Giants	IF	52	Takumi Kitamura
Giants	IF	66	Kazuya Katsuki
BayStars	IF	4	Yukiya Itoh

Dectivated

Swallows	P	17	Noboru Shimizu
BayStars	IF	55	Hayato Tanabe

Pacific League

Activated

Buffaloes	P	48	Koki Saito
Buffaloes	C	2	Kenya Wakatsuki
Buffaloes	IF	9	Tomoya Noguchi
Marines	OF	7	Shuhei Fukuda
Marines	OF	31	Tsuyoshi Sugano
Eagles	P	43	Sung Chia-hao
Hawks	P	29	Shuta Ishikawa
Hawks	OF	13	Masahiro Nakatani
Lions	P	54	Burch Smith
Lions	IF	3	Hotaka Yamakawa

Dectivated

Buffaloes

C

33

Masato Matsui