The typhoon that disrupted baseball, pro and high school on Tuesday, passed across Japan’s largest main island, Honshu, and left travel disruptions in its wake, stranding passengers for hours on end on the busy Tokaido Shinkansen. But baseball was back and of prime interest in my home.
In pro ball, the Hanshin Tigers went into their game in Hiroshima needing a win to light up their “magic number,” Shingo Usami, a career reserve catcher with his third pro team is making a name for himself as a late-inning clutch hitter, Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Kohei Arihara duked it out for the second time in four weeks.
Wednesday’s games
Hawks 3, Buffaloes 2: At Osaka UFO Dome, Yoshinobu Yamamoto (11-5) allowed three unearned runs and left after throwing 110 pitches over five innings, while Kohei Arihara (5-3) allowed two runs over eight innings to beat Yamamoto for the second time in their last two match-ups.
Tatsuru Yanagimachi‘s two-out bases-loaded single brought SoftBank from a run down in the third and the Hawks never trailed after that.
Tigers 5, Carp 3: At New Hiroshima Citizens Stadium, Kotaro Otake (8-1), who skipped his last start after allowing five runs in 5-2/3 innings to the Giants on July 26, allowed three runs, two earned, over 5-2/3. Hiroshima’s Allen Kuri (6-5) had a rough night, giving up four runs, two earned, on three walks and eight hits. Hanshin took a 4-1 second-inning lead on RBI singles by Seiya Kinami, Koji Chikamoto and Takumu Nakano
Dragons 2, Giants 1: At Nagoya Dome, former Giant Shingo Usami, who walked off the Hiroshima Carp in his final at-bat Sunday with a 10th-inning home run, came off the bench in the ninth to single in the winning run Wednesday, giving him game-winning hits in consecutive at-bats.
Foster Griffin allowed a run over six innings for the Giants, while Shinnosuke Ogasawara allowed a run over seven innings for the Dragons. Chunichi closer Raidel Martinez (3-1), who surrendered his first earned run in the 10th inning Sunday after nine hitless innings from Yuya Yanagi, stranded the go-ahead run in the ninth to earn wins in consecutive games.
Swallows 8, Deniers 6: At Jingu Stadium, Shota Imanaga (7-2), who tells me what poor form he’s in every time I talk to him, is beginning to make a believer out of me. The lefty surrendered six runs over five innings. He surrendered nine hits and walked three while striking out eight.
Yasuhiro Ogawa (6-8) allowed a run on seven hits over seven innings, and left with an 8-1 lead that the bullpen tried to throw away. Munetaka Murakami hit his 23rd home run, doubled and drove in two, while Jose Osuna was a triple shy of achieving baseball’s stupidest statistical feat, scored twice and drove in three.
With one out and the tying run at the plate, Kazuto Taguchi allowed one inherited runner to score before securing his CL-leading 28th save.
Fighters 6, Marines 0: At Kitahiroshima Taxpayer’s Burden Field, Nippon Ham scored six runs for the second straight day, Cody Ponce (1-4) scattered eight hits and a walk over six innings – stranding five runners in the first two innings, Wang Po-jung went 1-for-3 in his season debut with a two-run second-inning double, and catcher Yudai Furukawa doubled twice, singled and hit a sacrifice fly.
Lions 4, Eagles 1: At Seibu Half Dome, Tatsuya Imai (7-3) continued to rock and roll since spending June in detention with the Lions’ farm club, July’s PL pitcher of the month threw his seventh straight quality start, a six-hitter. Sosuke Genda capped the Lions’ four-run second, that started with two consecutive outs, with a two-run triple.
My baseball home life
Teruyo, who has become ultra into all things Shohei Ohtani since the WBC, including searching out bits about him from his high school days, has been really into this year’s national high school baseball championships, and has been rooting hard for Keio High School, who has a new-wave manager who doesn’t hold with shaved heads and practice till you drop dead from exhaustion, and Tsuchiura Nichidai from her hometown in Ibaraki Prefecture and our niece’s alma mater.
Both reached the quarterfinals with wins on Wednesday, with Nichidai coming from six runs down in a game that had a truckload of defensive highlights.
