Masahiro Tanaka made his first start as a Giant Thursday, when we had a Maddux and an entertaining pitchers’ duel in Osaka. Yesterday, I spoke too soon about how the winless had all won, forgetting the Seibu Lions, whose first two games in Sendai were washed out, and remain perfectly winless after their former ace shut them down.
Yesterday, I teased people on social media about a story regarding an opportunity 20 years ago NPB had to broadcast the Japan Series in America. After some e-mails with Bobby Valentine confirmed that my memory was not misinforming me, I wrote about 2,000 words about the lengths NPB goes to keep its games away from viewers and why: “NPB’s ban on fan video a telling sign.”
Thursday’s games
Giants 5, Dragons 3: At Nagoya Dome, Masahiro Tanaka pitched out of a couple of jams to allow a run over five innings and earn his first win in two years and the 188th of his major league career, with 78 of those in MLB with the New York Yankees. He outpitched fellow Sawamura Award winner, Yudai Ono, who allowed four runs, two earned, in five innings.
Tanaka was spared a first-inning run when Elier Hernandez tracked down Seiya Suzuki‘s smoking liner in deep center with two on and no outs. Kazuma Okamoto, who had a hand in three of the Giants’ runs, set up Yomiuri’s first run with a second-inning leadoff single. Okamoto singled twice, doubled and had a sacrifice fly. Gakuto Wakabayashi and Trey Cabbage each had two hits for the Giants, and Hayato Sakamoto put a lean on the further taxed the Dragons with a pair of sac flies.
Eagles 4, Lions 1: At Miyagi Stadium, Takayuki Kishi allowed a run on three hits against his former team over seven innings with Seibu’s second-round draft pick from last autumn plating Masaya Nishikawa with a triple for his first career RBI and the Lions’ final hit of the game.
Toshiki Abe plated Yuya Ogo with a no-out double to tie it in a three-run sixth. Ryosuke Tatsumi and Abe then scored on back-to-back RBI singles from former Lion Hideto Asamura and Yuya Ito off Lions starter Taiga Ueda. Maikel Franco singled in a run in the eighth and Takahiro Norimoto closed it out for the Eagles.
Swallows 3, Carp 0: At Jingu “Tokyo’s Sacrifice to Corporate Greed and Governmental Malfeasance” Stadium, Yasuhiro Ogawa struck out four in a two-hit 92-pitch Maddux. Carp starter Shogo Tamamura surrendered back-to-back no-out singles to Hideki Nagaoka and Domingo Santana, and two runs scored on a Jose Osuna double and an Eigoro Mogi single. Yoshihiro Akahane piled on with an eighth-inning RBI double.
Buffaloes 3, Marines 2: At Chiba Marine Stadium, Orix’s Anderson Espinoza got into trouble just once in his 5-1/3-inning debut, and Neftali Soto, made him pay with a game-tying sixth-inning bases-loaded single that sent Espinoza to the showers. Lotte’s starter, free agent acquisition Shuta Ishikawa was ejected for hitting a batter, catcher Kenya Wakatsuki, in the head with one out in the second, loading the bases for his replacement, Shuta Takano, who spun 3-2/3 scoreless innings despite a ton of traffic on the bags to preserve the scoreless game.
The Buffaloes regained the lead off hard-throwing Tayron Guerrero, who issued an eighth-inning leadoff walk and surrendered Ryoma Nishikawa‘s third double of the game. Former Marine Luis Perdomo worked the eighth, and Yoshihisa Hirano survived a two-out scare in the ninth to record his 250th NPB save and the 258th of his major league career.
BayStars 5, Tigers 2: At Osaka UFO Dome, DeNA’s Anthony Kay and Hanshin newcomer Jon Duplantier both delivered in their season debuts, Kay striking out eight over seven scoreless frames, and Duplantier allowing a run on three hits while striking out eight over six innings. Both offenses took off after they left.
Keito Mori singled to lead off DeNA’s sixth and scored via a Kay sacrifice and a Masayuki Kuwahara single. A Kuwahara single and a Maki double made it 2-0 in the eighth, before Teruaki Sato‘s two-run homer, his second, tied it in the home half.
DeNA broke the tie on a one-out two-run Yudai Yamamoto triple off Javy Guerra, although one of those runs was a gift from the home plate umpire after Keita Sano waved at a two-strike pitch only to walk after veteran umpire Katsumi Manabe called it a foul ball. A Mori sac fly completed the scoreline, and Yasuaki Yamasaki was allowed to convert his 232nd career save.
