After four no-hit shutouts last season, Japan had its first of 2023 on Friday with Shuta Ishikawa of all people going the distance on 127 pitches, while needing only the tiniest bit of extra effort from his fielders as the Seibu Lions hit into one easy out after another in an 8-0 SoftBank Hawks win.

The best part of the story was Ishikawa saying, “I go to the mound every time thinking of a no-hitter but always give up a hit in the first inning, so I always end up just thinking about one batter after another. By the time of the last out, I was kind of in that mode and maybe not to conscious of a no-hitter.”

Yuki Yanagita homered for the Hawks’ eighth run, which was insignificant for the game but big for him, since his longtime former Hawks teammate Nobuhiro Matsuda also went deep on No. 1,500, and he’d been texting him, encouraging Gita to do the same.

The Lions, however, have now been the victims of three of Japan’s last five no-hit shutouts. It was Japan’s 99th regular season no-hit shutout — Japan doesn’t count no-hitters in which a run scored — that went nine-plus innings. Tomoyuki Sugano threw one in the postseason, and six were thrown in called games.

In other news,

Chunichi’s Yuki Okabayashi extended his Dragons’ franchise-record hit streak to 29 games in a 10-2 butt-kicking at the hands of the Yakult Swallows, who deactivated Munetaka Murakami under the covid activation rules.

The Lotte Marines, shut out in their previous two games and facing a pitcher, Takayuki Kishi who threw a shutout in his previous start, nearly got one of their own, with Atsuki Taneichi (10-4) taking his into the eighth. Naoya Masuda nailed down the 4-1 win with his 30th save.

And just to show that no good deed goes unpunished, Orix rookie Shumpeita Yamashita allowed a run in seven innings and struck out 10, while the Fighters’ Naoyuki Uwasawa gave up a run over nine innings and neither got a result in their 1-1 tie.