It’s Saturday in Japan, and Roki Sasaki is scheduled to pitch on Sunday. You know what that makes today? ROKI EVE!

To celebrate Roki Eve, we had a perfect game taken into the seventh inning and three shutouts in one league, and to prove that Japan is just not a haven for budding 20-year-old superstars, two players over 40 did the lions’ share of the work in one of them.

Ready for the action? Let’s go.

Giants 3, Dragons 0: At Nagoya Dome, Matt Shoemaker (1-1) threw an eight-strikeout no-walk two-hitter, while singling and scoring the winning run in his third Japanese start for the Yomiuri Giants, lowering his ERA to 0.83.

Shoemaker retired the 20 batters before allowing a double to Cuba’s Ariel Martinez in the seventh. The pitcher singled with on one and no outs in the sixth off Takahiro Matsuba (1-1) and scored on wild pitch.

Matsuba allowed one run over five-plus innings. Adam Walker had two hits for the Giants, his one-out double sparking a two-run ninth before Shoemaker allowed a hit in a scoreless ninth for his first shutout since 2016.

Wish I had video for this one, but the Dragons don’t post highlights of home games against the Giants.

Carp 6, BayStars 0: At Hiroshima Citizens Stadium, Shota Dobayashi continued to look like the player the Carp expected him to be 10 years ago, breaking the ice with a two-run third-inning home run, his first, and threw out a runner in the fourth. Dobayashi also singled and scored in the Carp’s four-run sixth, when Shogo Sakakura and Shota Suekane each doubled in two.

Masato Morishita (3-1) scattered a walk and eight hits, pitching a scoreless fourth thanks to Dobayashi.

Swallows 1, Tigers 0: At Jingu Stadium, 42-year-old Masanori Ishikawa (1-2) went six innings, and 40-year-old Norichika Aoki had two of Yakult’s three hits, including a fourth-inning leadoff home run.

Ishikawa became the third pitcher in Japanese pro baseball to record a win in 21 consecutive seasons. Aaron Wilkerson (1-1) worked 6-1/3 innings. He struck out seven while allowing three hits and no walks to take the tough loss.

Ishikawa pitched out of a huge first-inning jam after back-to-back one-out singles by Takahiro Kumagai and Teruaki Sato and a walk to Yusuke Oyama, but he popped up Mel Rojas Jr. and struck out Dan Onodera.

The Tigers put the tying run on against Yugo Amano in the seventh, but with two outs, lefty Kazuto Taguchi threw one pitch before pinch-runner Kairi Shimada was caught stealing. Taguchi retired the next three batters in the eighth, and Scott McGough did the same in the ninth for his sixth save.

Buffaloes 3, Marines 2, 11 innings: At Osaka Dome, Lotte closer Naoya Masuda blew a one-run 10th-inning lead, and rookie Kenta Onuma (0-1) allowed the winning run to score in the 11th. Both runs unearned.

Rookie Lotte shortstop Ryusei Ogawa doubled to open the Marines’ 10th for his second hit of the day. He scored via a sacrifice and a groundout. Shuhei Fukuda gave the Buffaloes a leadoff double in the 10th off Masuda. Breyvic Valera reached when Ogawa fielded a chopper but lost the handle when he looked to see if he had a play at third on Fukuda.

The Marines got an out at second on a good tag from second baseman Shogo Nakamura after a bounced pitch, but Kotaro Kurebayashi walked and Masataka Yoshida‘s second sac fly of the game tied it.

Orix starter Taisuke Yamaoka, allowed –what else—an unearned run over six innings. César Vargas, Jesse Biddle and Yoshihisa Hirano each worked a scoreless inning with Biddle striking out the side. Ryota Muranishi (1-1), Orix’s sixth pitcher, walked two in the 11th but earned the win.

Some good hitting by Ryoto Kita got Orix a leadoff runner in the 11th. Yutaro Sugimoto walked. Shortstop Ogawa got a bouncing ball and this time ignored the runner going past him and got the force at second. The pitcher got a shot straight to second, but Nakamura fumbled it, allowing the winning run to score.

Eagles 7, Lions 3: At Seibu Dome, former Seibu ace Hideaki Wakui (2-1) allowed two runs over six innings against his old team, while Rakuten scored four off rookie Chihiro Sumida (2-1) in a five-run fourth inning. Former Lion Hideto Asamura reached base four times. He capped the fourth-inning rally with a two-run double and hit his third home run in the ninth.

Brazillian right-hander Bo Takahashi worked two scoreless innings of relief for the Lions, while Sung Chia-hao, Alan Busenitz and Yuki Matsui each pitched in an inning of relief for the Eagles.

Hawks 9, Fighters 3: At Sapporo Dome, Naoyuki Uwasawa (0-3) failed to come close to his effort from last Sunday when he matched zeroes with Roki Sasaki for seven innings. Kenta Imamiya singled in the tying run in the second and Masaki Mimori‘s third home run made it 4-1. Seiji Uebayashi, who walked to open the second, homered with two on in the third, and the Hawks cruised the rest of the way.

Sunday’s starting pitchers

Fighters vs Hawks: Sapporo Dome 2 pm, 1 am EDT

Toshihiro Sugiura (0-1, 4.76) vs Nao Higashihama (1-1, 4.15)

Lions vs Eagles: Seibu Dome 2 pm, 1 am EDT

Dietrich Enns (1-1, 2.79) vs Ryota Takinaka (1-0, 1.89)

Buffaloes vs Marines: Osaka Dome 1 pm, 12 midnight EDT

Soichiro Yamazaki (0-1, 7.62) vs Roki Sasaki (2-0, 1.16)

Swallows vs Tigers: Jingu Stadium 6 pm, 5 am EDT

Yuto Kanakubo (1-0, 3.00) vs Joe Gunkel (0-3, 4.50)

Dragons vs Giants: Nagoya Dome 2 pm, 1 am EDT

Koji Fukutani (1-1, 4.09) vs Yuji Akahoshi (2-1, 1.69)

Carp vs BayStars: Hiroshima Citizen’s Stadium 1:30 pm, 0:30 am EDT

Shogo Tamamura (1-0, 3.00) vs Shinichi Onuki (0-1, 5.63)

Active roster moves 4/23/2022

Deactivated players can be re-activated from 5/3

Central League

Activated

Dectivated

Pacific League

Activated

Dectivated