The Hanshin Tigers and SoftBank Hawks entered Tuesday with their season-opening streaks intact on Tuesday, when a quartet of struggling hitters from last year’s league champs appeared to have found their rhythm, Masahiro Tanaka looked like his old self and Chris Gittens‘ Japan debut was a brief one.
Ready? Let’s go!
Tuesday’s games
Hawks 6, Buffaloes 3: At Fukuoka Dome, SoftBank lost their starting pitcher, Shuta Ishikawa, after the first inning, rookie Shuto Ogata (1-0), yet another guy who turned pro with the Hawks on a developmental contract, pitched two scoreless innings despite allowing the Buffaloes to load the bases in the second to earn his first win. The win was SoftBank’s eighth straight to start the season.
Ishikawa had poor command from the get-go. With one run in on a Masataka Yoshida double and one out in the first, the game was paused for 6-1/2 minutes while he got treatment after walking the bases loaded. He walked Kotaro Kurebayashi to plate a second run with two outs and was replaced after the first inning.
With two out and two on in the home half of the second, Hawks leadoff man Masaki Mimori put a good swing on an unusually straight fastball from Soichiro Yamasaki (0-1) to plate Freddie Galvis and Kenta Imamiya.
Galvis led off the Hawks’ fourth with his second walk, with a sacrifice and singles from Takuya Kai, Mimori and Tatsuro Yanagimachi making it 5-2.
After a slow start to the season, both Yoshida and cleanup hitter Yutaro Sugimoto, finally appeared to find their rhythm, with Sugimoto blasting one well over the center-field wall to open the Buffaloes sixth with his first homer, on his 31st birthday.
Yurisbel Gracial, who walked twice, singled to open the Hawks’ eighth to set up the game’s final run.
The Hawks used eight pitchers, with closer Yuito Mori earning his sixth save.
Eagles 7, Lions 3: At Miyagi Stadium, Masahiro Tanaka took an inning to find his good stuff, then put it into high gear. With a five-run lead, he took his foot off the gas for a second, hung a splitter and surrendered a two-run homer to light-hitting Shohei Suzuki.
Tanaka (2-0) walked one and struck out four while allowing eight hits over seven innings. The Lions twice barreled him up in the first inning, but got just one hit. His fastball got better, though and good contact became hard to find. Tanaka’s biggest jam came when he was pitching his best when the Lions got back-to-back scratch singles to open the third on a broken-bat flare and seeing-eye grounder past first, causing a classic eye roll from the right-hander.
As in his glory days before moving to the majors, Tanaka responded to the threat by throwing his very best stuff, a fastball with good zip on it and superb splits.
The Eagles loaded the bases with two outs in the first against Lions starter Shunsuke Sato (1-0) on a Haruki Nishikawa single, a hit batsman and a Chris Gittens walk before Daichi Suzuki‘s two-run double. A Hideto Asamura leadoff single in the third and a Hiroaki Shimauchi walk set the table again. One-out RBI singles by Suzuki and José Marmolejos, and a run-scoring error made it 5-0.
One thing I love about Tanaka is how animated he is. You know when he’s annoyed with the umpire or himself or simply puzzled. After his hanging splitter ended up over the fence, Tanaka stood on the mound and smacked himself in the head with his glove.
After giving Tanaka pitifully poor run support last season, the Eagles have now scored nine runs in 15 innings when he’s been in the game.
Gittens out
Chris Gittens’ Japan debut was a brief one. He became the third new import in the past year to be injured in his first Japanese major league game. Rusney Castillo and Eric Thames were both deactivated after their debuts last season. It was Thames’ only game after his farm team tuneup.
Gittens felt pain in his right wrist after swinging and missing at a 2-1 count in the third inning.
Marines 2, Fighters 0: At Sapporo Dome, Lefty Enny Romero (1-0) pitched out of a no-out bases-loaded pickle in the second inning, and a two-on no-out jam in the fifth. Adeiny Hechavarria singled home Brandon Laird against Fighters starter Naoyuki Uwasawa (0-2) in the fourth and scored on an Akito Takabe single.
Marines rookie Atsuya Hirohata pitched out of a one-out bases-loaded situation in the seventh, and scoreless innings from former closer Yuji Nishino and his successor, Naoya Masuda closed it out as the Fighters fell to 1-9.
Tigers 4, BayStars 0: With the spring high school invitational championship done, Hanshin returned to Koshien Stadium for its real home opener after hosting its first games at Osaka Dome. Back in their natural habitat, Yuki Nishi and Teruaki Sato provided the cure the 0-9 Tigers so badly needed.
Nishi (1-0) struck out four while allowing seven hits over the distance and walking none. A Koji Chikamoto leadoff single, a wild pitch and a Takumu Nakano single put Hanshin in front in the first against Fernando Romero (1-1), who challenged Sato with an inside fastball that ended up in the right-field stands for his first homer.
Ryuhei Obata led off the second with a double, was sacrificed to third by Nishi and scored on another wild pitch. Romero and four relievers held Hanshin to just one hit and two walks over the final six innings, but Nishi was never really threatened.
Tigers-BayStars highlights
Carp 3, Giants 1: At Hiroshima Citizen’s Stadium, Allen Kuri (1-0) scattered seven hits and five walks as he allowed one run over seven innings. Kaito Kozono doubled with two out in the first off Shosei Togo (1-1) and scored on a Shogo Sakakura single.
Togo, who worked six innings, singled in the tying run with two outs in the fourth after a Seiya Matsubara double, but Kozono opened the Carp sixth with his third single, and scored after one-out singles by Sakakura and Ryuhei Matsuyama.
Former Carp closer Shota Nakazaki worked the eighth, and closer Ryuji Kuribayashi stranded a leadoff runner to record his third series.
Dragons 7, Swallows 6: At Jingu Stadium, Cy Sneed‘s 2022 season got its baptism of fire for Yakult as the right-hander allowed five runs in three innings. Chunichi catcher Takuya Kinoshita singled in one run in a two-run first and belted a three-run homer in the third.
With one out and two on in the first, right fielder Domingo Santana lost a Dayan Viciedo fly in the lights and it dropped for a single. A sac fly followed before Kinoshita made it 2-0. With one out in the third, Viciedo singled, Toshiki Abe singled and Kinoshita went deep.
Dragons starter Akiyoshi Katsuno took a 5-0 lead into the bottom of the third, but the Swallows caught a break when right fielder Yuki Okabayashi lost a Norichika Aoki drive at the right-field wall and it went for a triple. Tetsuto Yamada and Munetaka Murakami, who had been missing their pitches a lot from the start of the season, suddenly appeared to find their timing.
Yamada belted a two-run shot, his third, and Murakami followed with his second to make it 5-3.
Ariel Martinez started for the Dragons, singled twice was hit by a pitch scored a run and drove in a run in the fourth after Katsuno doubled to open the inning and is now 2-for-5 with a homer and a double.
Katsuno struck out seven, but was pulled after walking a pinch-hitter to open the Swallows’ seventh. With two outs, Tatsuya Shimizu (2-0) walked Yamada and Murakami followed with his third homer to tie it 6-6. Dragons rookie Takaya Ishikawa, one of the prizes of the 2019 draft, broke the tie by opening Chunichi’s eighth with his first pro home run, off Swallows setup man Noboru Shimizu (0-1).
Yariel Rodriguez worked a scoreless eighth for Chunichi before closer Raidel Martinez notched his third save.
Swallows-Dragons highlights
Wednesday’s starting pitchers
Fighters vs Marines: Sapporo Dome 6 pm, 5 am EDT
Takayuki Kato (0-1, 6.75) vs Fumiya Motomae (-)
Eagles vs Lions: Miyagi Stadium 2 pm, 1 am EDT
Takayuki Kishi (0-0, 1.50) vs Wataru Matsumoto (1-0, 4.76)
Hawks vs Buffaloes: Fukuoka Dome 6 pm, 5 am EDT
Tsuyoshi Wada (0-0, 3.60) vs Daiki Tajima (0-0, 1.50)
Swallows vs Dragons: Jingu Stadium 6 pm, 5 am EDT
Hirotoshi Takanashi (1-0, 0.00) vs Koji Fukutani (-)
Tigers vs BayStars: Koshien Stadium 6 pm, 5 am EDT
Masashi Ito (0-1, 7.11) vs Kenta Ishida (1-0, 2.57)
Carp vs Giants: Hiroshima Citizen’s Stadium 6 pm, 5 am EDT
Hiroki Tokoda (1-0, 1.29) vs C.C. Mercedes (1-0, 0.00)
Active roster moves 4/5/2022
Deactivated players can be re-activated from 4/15
Central League
Activated
| Swallows | P | 54 | Cy Sneed |
| Tigers | P | 18 | Kosuke Baba |
| Dragons | P | 41 | Akiyoshi Katsuno |
| Dragons | C | 57 | Ariel Martinez |
Dectivated
| Tigers | P | 92 | Yuta Watanabe |
Pacific League
Activated
| Eagles | P | 31 | Yuya Fukui |
| Eagles | P | 41 | Yoshinao Kamata |
| Eagles | P | 60 | Ryota Ishibashi |
| Eagles | IF | 42 | Chris Gittens |
| Hawks | P | 50 | Yugo Bandoh |
| Hawks | OF | 64 | Yusuke Masago |
| Fighters | P | 54 | Taisho Tamai |
| Fighters | IF | 24 | Yuki Nomura |
Dectivated
| Eagles | P | 23 | Hayato Yuge |
| Eagles | P | 79 | Yuki Watanabe |
| Eagles | OF | 50 | Atsuki Mutoh |
| Hawks | P | 40 | Kazuki Sugiyama |
| Hawks | IF | 8 | Kenji Akashi |
