For all those people who said Sunday, “Roki Sasaki only needs three more outs for a perfect game,” I give you the Lotte Marines offense. The Marines failed to score in nine innings for the right-hander, added another scoreless inning that afternoon before losing in 10, and then were shut out again on Tuesday.
There have been 94 regular-season no-hitters in Japanese pro baseball, there’s never been one that ended 0-0.
In other fun stuff, we had a fascinating left-handed matchup in Osaka between 41-year-old Hawks veteran and last year’s PL rookie of the year, 20-year-old Hiroya Miyagi, where Shuhei Fukuda proved he could use his head, while the Nippon Ham Fighters tried to extend their longest win streak under manager Tsuyoshi Shinjo to four games.
Shall we get started? Let’s go.
Lions 3, Marines 0: At Seibu Dome, Lotte’s Manabu Mima (0-2) and Seibu’s Wataru Matsumoto each went six innings before allowing a seventh-inning single.
Tsuyoshi Sugano got the game’s first hit, a one-out seventh-inning single. A walk and a wild pitch put two in scoring position. With the infield way in, Toshiya Sato hit a bullet straight to second baseman Shuta Tonosaki, whose catch saved at least one run.
Yoshinobu Mizukami (1-0) threw two pitches, stranded both runners, and got the win after the Lions broke the ice against Mima in the home half.
A Hotaka Yamakawa leadoff single, a sacrifice, and a Wu Nien-ting RBI double put Seibu up 1-0 for the only run they would get off Mima in 6-2/3 innings. Yohei Suzuki, who ran for Yamakawa and scored the firt run, singled in an insurance run in the Lions’ eighth.
Buffaloes 3, Hawks 2: At Osaka Dome, lefties Miyagi (1-2) and Wada (0-1) continued to search for their missing mojo this season, although Miyagi appeared to be closer to unlocking that magic he had last season.
Miyagi, who has slowly been getting his groove back this year, outpitched Wada for the most part and left after seven with a 3-1 lead. With a few exceptions, including Kenta Imamiya‘s first home run, in the first, Miyagi made his pitches, and then got some big defense when the Hawks managed to put good swings on them.
Wada took a 1-0 lead into the fifth, but with one out, Shuhei Fukuda put a good swing on a slider away and pulled it down the right-field line. Taisei Makihara‘s relay throw to third hit Fukuda in the head and bounded away into foul territory, allowing him to score the tying run.
Masataka Yoshida walked, Yuma Tongu doubled. With two outs, Wada missed with a high pitch to Ryoichi Adachi, who miss-hit it only for his flare to land safely in shallow center for a two-run single.
The Hawks got a run back against new import Jesse Biddle in the eighth, on Imamiya’s third hit and an Akira Nakamura triple. Yoshihisa Hirano stranded a leadoff runner in the ninth for his sixth save.
Eagles 4, Fighters 2: At Miyagi Stadium, former Pirate Cody Ponce (0-1) made his Japan debut for the Fighters, who were reminded once more how good their former leadoff hitters still is.
Ponce surrendered a leadoff walk to Haruki Nishikawa, who was non-tendered by Nippon Ham last winter, and who scored on Hideto Asamura‘s first-inning homer. Ponce lasted long enough to give an RBI triple to Nishikawa in the Eagle’s two-run fifth.
Takayuki Kishi, who’s become something of a wildcard the past two seasons, improved to 2-0 after allowing three hits and a walk over seven innings and striking out seven. Allan Busenitz worked the eighth, before Naoto Nishiguchi surrendered Kazunari Ishii‘s two-run ninth-inning triple, opening the door for Yuki Matsui to get his fifth save.
Giants 5, Carp 3: At Tokyo Dome, Gregory Polanco‘s two-out eighth-inning double brought Yomiuri from behind and rookie Taisei Ota closed it out in the ninth for his 11th save.
Ryoma Nishikawa‘s first homer made it 2-0 in the fifth off C.C. Mercedes, and Shota Dobayashi singled in Kaito Kozono in the sixth to make it 3-0 Carp.
After allowing one hit and one walk through five, Carp lefty Hiroki Tokoda surrendered back-to-back one-out singles in the sixth to Naoki Yoshikawa and Hayato Sakamoto, and both scored on Kazuma Okamoto‘s two-out single.
Starting the eighth with 98 pitches under his belt, Tokoda gave up a one-out double to Yoshikawa and reliever Sotaro Shimauchi (0-1) walked Sakamoto, who reached base four times. Polanco doubled down the line to bring both home, and Hiroyuki Nakajima‘s pinch-hit RBI singled completed the scoring.
Giants-Carp highlights
BayStars 1, Tigers 0: At Yokohama Stadium, Kazuki Mishima (1-0) struck out four over two scoreless innings, and Neftali Soto led off DeNA’s 10th with his third home run, a sayonara walk-off Masumi Hamachi (0-1) as Hanshin lost its third straight.
BayStars-Tigers highlights
Dragons 4, Swallows 1: At Nagoya Dome, Chunichi right-hander Hiroto Takahashi (2-1) allowed a run over six innings, on Munetaka Murakami‘s second homer in two nights.
The pitcher, however, reached on an error in Chunichi’s two-run second and doubled and scored in the fourth to beat Yakult’s Yasuhiro Ogawa (0-2), who gave up Yota Kyoda‘s two-run single in the second after Toshiki Abe and Takuya Kinoshita singled and Takaya Ishikawa walked to load the bases.
Dragons-Swallows highlights
Thursday’s starting pitchers
Eagles vs Fighters: Miyagi Stadium 6 pm, 5 am EDT
Koichi Takada (-) vs Kazuaki Tateno (1-1, 6.75)
Buffaloes vs Hawks: Osaka Dome 6 pm, 5 am EDT
Daiki Tajima (0-0, 0.71) vs Kodai Senga (3-0, 0.62)
Giants vs Carp: Tokyo Dome 6 pm, 5 am EDT
Kenshin Hotta (1-1, 3.60) vs Atsushi Endo (1-1, 1.53)
BayStars vs Tigers: Yokohama Stadium 6 pm, 5 am EDT
Yuya Sakamoto (0-1, 5.25) vs Yukiya Saito (0-1, 7.36)
Active roster moves 4/20/2022
Deactivated players can be re-activated from 4/30
Central League
Activated
| Swallows | P | 29 | Yasuhiro Ogawa |
| Swallows | IF | 60 | Ryusei Takeoka |
| Dragons | P | 19 | Hiroto Takahashi |
| BayStars | C | 10 | Yasutaka Tobashira |
| BayStars | IF | 2 | Shugo Maki |
| BayStars | IF | 5 | Toshihiko Kuramoto |
| BayStars | IF | 66 | Koki Yamashita |
Dectivated
| BayStars | C | 32 | Kyosuke Mashiko |
| BayStars | IF | 4 | Yukiya Ito |
| BayStars | IF | 60 | Naoto Chino |
| BayStars | OF | 58 | Koki Kajiwara |
Pacific League
Activated
| Buffaloes | P | 45 | Shota Abe |
| Marines | P | 15 | Manabu Mima |
| Hawks | P | 21 | Tsuyoshi Wada |
| Hawks | P | 66 | Yuki Matsumoto |
| Fighters | P | 45 | Cody Ponce |
Dectivated
| Buffaloes | P | 57 | Nobuyoshi Yamada |
Thursday’s starting pitchers
Eagles vs Fighters: Miyagi Stadium 6 pm, 5 am EDT
Koichi Takada (-) vs Kazuaki Tateno (1-1, 6.75)
Buffaloes vs Hawks: Osaka Dome 6 pm, 5 am EDT
Daiki Tajima (0-0, 0.71) vs Kodai Senga (3-0, 0.62)
Giants vs Carp: Tokyo Dome 6 pm, 5 am EDT
Kenshin Hotta (1-1, 3.60) vs Atsushi Endo (1-1, 1.53)
BayStars vs Tigers: Yokohama Stadium 6 pm, 5 am EDT
Yuya Sakamoto (0-1, 5.25) vs Yukiya Saito (0-1, 7.36)
Active roster moves 4/20/2022
Deactivated players can be re-activated from 4/30
Central League
Activated
| Swallows | P | 29 | Yasuhiro Ogawa |
| Swallows | IF | 60 | Ryusei Takeoka |
| Dragons | P | 19 | Hiroto Takahashi |
| BayStars | C | 10 | Yasutaka Tobashira |
| BayStars | IF | 2 | Shugo Maki |
| BayStars | IF | 5 | Toshihiko Kuramoto |
| BayStars | IF | 66 | Koki Yamashita |
Dectivated
| BayStars | C | 32 | Kyosuke Mashiko |
| BayStars | IF | 4 | Yukiya Ito |
| BayStars | IF | 60 | Naoto Chino |
| BayStars | OF | 58 | Koki Kajiwara |
Pacific League
Activated
| Buffaloes | P | 45 | Shota Abe |
| Marines | P | 15 | Manabu Mima |
| Hawks | P | 21 | Tsuyoshi Wada |
| Hawks | P | 66 | Yuki Matsumoto |
| Fighters | P | 45 | Cody Ponce |
Dectivated
| Buffaloes | P | 57 | Nobuyoshi Yamada |
