There was more bad coronavirus news coming out of Sendai from the Rakuten Eagles on Saturday, and while one streak ended, the Hanshin Tigers are now poised to make the kind of history they didn’t expect when they followed the Giants’ lead to wear 1936 throwback uniforms in their first series of the season.
All that and a taste of “The Big Sleep” and we’re set to go for Saturday in Japanese baseball. Shall we get started?
COVID grounds Eagles, Hawks
The Pacific League’s Rakuten Eagles on Saturday suspended baseball operations for the weekend, forcing the cancellation of two games against the league-leading SoftBank Hawks, who have started the season 7-0 and are Japan’s only unbeaten team.
Rakuten announced Friday that seven players and one coach had tested positive, while another player had tested positive Sunday. The decision to cancel games was made by the Eagles, who are not required to identify those team members who are close contacts, and suggests the team did not have enough players cleared to play, Asahi Digital reported.
“Continuing business operations is important, but that has to be balanced with the need to prevent further spread of infections,” Nippon Professional Baseball Secretary General Atsushi Ihara told an online press conference after an extraordinary session of NPB’s executive committee.
The cancellations were the first in Japan’s major leagues this year. Nine games last season were postponed, while one was scratched in 2020.
Saturday’s games
Giants 5, Tigers 4: At Tokyo Dome, three home runs from Hayato Sakamoto, Yoshihiro Maru and Gregory Polanco, and an RBI walk by Sho Nakata after Hanshin intentionally loaded the bases, gave the Yomiuri Giants enough to outlast the Hanshin Tigers.
The Tigers, who held rookie Giants closer Taisei Ota’s feet to the fire in the ninth for the second straight day but could not tie it up, tied the 1979 Yakult Swallows’ Central League record of eight consecutive losses to start the season. The skid is the longest in either league since the Lotte Marines lost their first 11.
The Tigers loaded the bases with one out against Giants rookie Iori Yamasaki in the first. Yusuke Oyama singled in two but that’s all the Tigers would get. Hanshin right-hander Ippei Ogawa (0-2) surrendered a two-run first-inning homer to Hayato Sakamoto, a tie-breaking leadoff homer to Yoshihiro Maru, and a one-out solo shot to Gregory Polanco in the third.
Tigers captain Seiichiro Sakamoto singled for the second time to open the fourth and scored after a sacrifice by the pitcher and a single by leadoff man Koji Chikamoto. A two-out Takumu Nakano single chased Yamasaki, but 21-year-old rookie Natsuki Toda (1-0) stopped the bleeding, worked 1-1/3 innings of scoreless relief and earned his first career win.
Ogawa allowed a one-out to leadoff man Naoki Yoshikawa in the fifth and a double to Hayato Sakamoto. Rookie Takumu Kirishiki, who delivered a quality start in his pro debut last week, retired Polanco but then the Tigers shot themselves in the foot, walking Kazuma Okamoto intentionally to load the bases, allowing Nakata to force in an insurance run.
It remained a two-run game until the ninth, when Ota entered, having earned the save in all five of his previous appearances. The Tigers scored twice off him on Friday and tortured him some more on Saturday.
Mel Rojas Jr. and Chikamoto drew back-to-back walks to open the inning and were advanced with a sacrifice. Forty-year-old Yoshio Itoi, who walked and scored in the first, singled in one run. Pinch-runner Taiga Egoshi stole second, but Hayato Sakamoto dashed in to catch a little squib of a liner and double off Chikamoto to end the game.
Tigers first baseman Jefry Marte did not suit up after feeling tightness in his legs on Friday.
Dragons 4, Carp 3: At Nagoya Dome, Yohei Oshima stole his 250th career base, homered to tie it 2-2 in the sixth, tied it again in the 12th with an RBI triple and scored the winning run. Yuki Okabayshi who tripled and tied it 1-1 in the fourth on Toshiki Abe’s sac fly, singled home Oshima in the 12th to win it.
Carp closer Ryoji Kuribayashi (0-1) failed to protect the lead and to break the NPB record of 22 consecutive games saved that he shares with Hall of Famer Kazuhiro Sasaki.
The Carp opened the scoring on a Ryan McBroom sac fly, and took a 2-1 fifth-inning lead on rookie Shota Suekane’s homer. Ryosuke Kikuchi walked and scored on a Shogo Sakakura sac fly to put Hiroshima up 3-2 in the 12th
Swallows 3, BayStars 2: At Jingu Stadium, Tetsuto Yamada became the 66th player in Japanese pro baseball with 250 career home runs, his sixth-inning solo shot, making it 2-1 after Yasutaka Shiomi singled in the tying run in the fifth. The win snapped Yakult’s four-game losing streak and the BayStars’ four-game win streak.
Yakult’s Noboru Shimizu, whose 50 holds led the CL last year, surrendered the tying run in the eighth on a walk and a Shugo Maki single. Yugo Umeno (2-0) pitched out of a 10th-inning jam with the bases loaded to earn the win.
Rookie Hideki Nagaoka led off the 10th against Michael Peoples (0-1) with his third hit, Yamada followed with another that shortstop Yamato Maeda did well to stop but dropped, and failing to pick it up, tried to push it to Maki at second for the force, something I’d never seen before.
Whenever I see someone crawling on the ground like that, I’m reminded of one of Humphry Bogart’s great lines to Martha Vickers in “The Big Sleep” when she’s scrambling to pick up a gun: “Get up Angel, you look like a Pekingese.”
But the drama ended quickly when Munetaka Murakami drove a ball to the wall in right for a game-winning double.
Buffaloes 7, Fighters 0: At Osaka Dome, Yoshinobu Yamamoto (2-0) won a tight pitching duel with Hiromi Ito (0-1), who allowed two runs over six innings before the dome’s roof fell on the Fighters bullpen in the form of five straight one-out RBI singles.
Yamamoto allowed five hits and a walk while striking out eight over seven innings. Ito worked a 1-2-3 first before hitting Masataka Yoshida and allowing a single to Yutaro Sugimoto. That set the table for RBI singles from Breyvic Valera and Ryo Ota.
Marines 8, Lions 1: Kota Futaki (1-0) allowed back-to-back singles from Shohei Suzuki and Brian O’Grady to open the game and then cruised for seven scoreless innings.
Brandon Laird broke the scoreless tie in the fourth against rookie Chihiro Sumida (1-1) by plating Toshiya Sato with his first home run. Sumida allowed three runs, two earned, over five innings in which he struck out five and walked none.
Laird, who had three of the Marines’ 12 hits, singled and scored a run in the Marines’ five-run seventh. Leonys Martin singled in the inning and delivered a fifth-inning sac fly that made it 3-0.
Sunday’s starting pitchers
Marines vs Lions: Chiba Marine Stadium 2 pm, 1 am EDT
Roki Sasaki (0-0, 4.50) vs Yutaro Watanabe (0-0, 12.00)
Buffaloes vs Fighters: Osaka Dome 1 pm, 12 midnight EDT
Hiroya Miyagi (0-1, 7.20) vs Ryusei Kawano (0-1, 18.00)
Giants vs Tigers: Tokyo Dome 1 pm, 12 midnight EDT
Yuji Akahoshi (0-0, 1.50) vs Joe Gunkel (-)
Swallows vs BayStars: Jingu Stadium 1 pm, 12 midnight EDT
Hirotoshi Takanashi (1-0, 0.00) vs Yuya Sakamoto (0-0, 5.14)
Dragons vs Carp: Nagoya Dome 2 pm, 1 am EDT
Yuya Yanagi (0-0, 6.43) vs Atsushi Endo (0-0, 4.50)
Active roster moves 4/2/2022
Deactivated players can be re-activated from 4/12
Central League
Activated
| Swallows | IF | 46 | Kengo Ota |
| Dragons | P | 47 | Shotaro Kasahara |
Dectivated
| Swallows | IF | 00 | Nobuyuki Okumura |
Pacific League
Activated
| Marines | P | 18 | Kota Futaki |
| Marines | OF | 51 | Koki Yamaguchi |
| Fighters | IF | 56 | Ryohei Hosokawa |
Dectivated
| Marines | IF | 00 | Raito Ikeda |
| Eagles | P | 62 | Naoto Nishiguchi |
| Fighters | P | 59 | Haruka Nemoto |
