Welcome to Tuesday.
We had a rare game on Monday, when the SoftBank Hawks hosted the Lotte Marines in Osaka, but Tuesday’s really the start of the baseball week.
The biggest series in are a pair of third-place vs fourth-place, and though the places may change since both leagues are compacted, the bottom four in the Central League and the top four in the Pacific League, Tuesday began with the firsts vs the fifths, the seconds vs the lasts and the thirds vs the fourths.
Yakult’s Munetaka Murakami entered the week having hit in nine straight at-bats and reached base in 14 consecutive plate appearances, so let’s start there:
Swallows 4, Giants 2, 11 innings: At Osaka Dome, Yakult catcher Yuhei Nakamura capped his 3-for-5 night with a two-run 11th-inning triple as the Swallows evened their season series against Yomiuri to 11-11 after Scott McGough recorded his 34th save.
Murakami hit one on the screws but only managed a broken-bat single and a walk in five plate appearances, although his one-out infield single got the Swallows started in the 11th.
Tetsuto Yamada’s 21st home run, with a man on in the third against Tomoyuki Sugano opened the scoring. Hayato Sakamoto trimmed the visitors’ lead with an RBI double off side-armer Reiji Kozawa in the bottom of the inning. Kozawa had to pitch out of trouble in the fourth and Sugano left the bases loaded in the sixth, allowing Yomiuri to tie it against former Giant Kazuto Taguchi in the seventh on a run set up by Hiroyuki Nakajima’s leadoff pinch-hit double.
Swallows skipper Shingo Takatsu, who has probably burned himself more than any other manager in Japan by bringing his outfield in with two outs and a runner on second, said he wanted two runs on Nakamura’s fly ball to the gap because that defensive alignment practically calls for extra-base hits. There was no irony in his voice, so I’m sure he believes that no other defensive alignment is possible.
BayStars 6, Dragons 0: At Yokohama Stadium, Shota Imanaga (9-3) scattered four singles and two walks over eight innings as DeNA snapped a four-game home losing streak by flattening Japan’s top roadkill.
Dragons starter Takahiro Matsuba (6-5) worked out of a one-out bases-loaded pickle in the second, but Taishi Ota singled and Keita Sano walked to open the third and both scored on Toshiro Miyazaki’s single.
Ota, who went 5-for-5, made it 3-0 in the fourth when he doubled in Masayuki Kuwahara for the first time. Shugo Maki homered, his 23rd, Tyler Austin hit a pinch-hit homer, his first, and Ota doubled in Kuwahara to complete the scoring in the eighth.
Tigers 1, Carp 0: At Koshien Stadium, Hanshin’s Yusuke Oyama won it on his 23rd home run with two out in the eighth off Nik Turley (2-3), and Kyle Keller recorded his second save.
Hiroshima’s Masato Morishita and Hanshin’s Koyo Aoyagi traded zeros, with Aoyagi going seven and Morishita scraping through six.
Lions 3, Fighters 1: At Seibu Dome, Kona Takahashi (9-7) worked 7-1/3 innings, but Nippon Ham gave him some help in limiting the damage to a run, while Naoyuki Uwasawa (6-7) allowed three runs in the complete-game loss.
Manager Tsuyoshi Shinjo’s favorite play, the bases-loaded run-and-hit, backfired in the first and resulted in an inning-ending double play. Afterward Shinjo doubled down on the logic of the play, although admittedly the idea of Shinjo attempting logic is new to me.
Anyway, the Lions scored in the second on two-out doubles by Takumi Kuriyama and Shohei Suzuki. The Fighters tied it on three no-out singles in the third and a double play, but Seibu broke the tie in the fourth on solo homers by Tomoya Mori, his sixth, and Wu Nien-ting, his fourth.
Former Fighter Katsuhiko Kumon got two outs to end the eighth, and Tatsushi Masuda worked around two no-out walks by striking out two batters with the tying run on second to end it and record his 28th save.
Marines 3, Hawks 2: At Osaka Dome on Monday, Lotte’s Akito Takabe homered in the first and with the Marines trailing 2-1 in the sixth, Takashi Ogino singled and scored on a Koki Yamaguchi single. Marines catcher Toshiya Sato walked with one out in the seventh off Yuki Tsumori (4-6) and scored the go-ahead run on a Takashi Ogino triple. Lotte’s unrepentant domestic abuser recorded the save.
Buffaloes 4, Eagles 3: At Miyagi Stadium, a see-saw came down to the closers, Yoshihisa Hirano and Yuki Matsui, one who saved his 200th game this year, and one who is approaching the milestone and will be the youngest ever to reach it.
With a 3-2 lead after Yoshiaki Watanabe’s two-run fourth-inning pinch-hit single off Taisuke Yamamoka, four Rakuten relievers put up scoreless innings after Takahiro Norimoto allowed Orix to take the lead in a two-run fourth. The Eagles threatened in the sixth, but Nobuyoshi Yamada took over for Yamaoka to get the final out with the bases loaded.
In the ninth, Matsui (1-3) walked Masataka Yoshida and Yuma Tongu with one out in the ninth before Ryo Nishimura plated both with a two-out double into the gap, blowing his first save opportunity of the season. A single and an error in the home half put the potential winning run on base with no outs, but Hirano popped up slugger Hideto Asamura, and recorded his 213th career save with back-to-back strikeouts.
Matsui remains eight shy of 200 saves, but is nearly three years younger than DeNA’s Yasuaki Yamasaki, who last week became the youngest to 200.
Rakuten’s loss moved the Eagles a 1-1/2 games back of Orix in fourth place.
Wednesday’s starting pitchers
Eagles vs Buffaloes: Miyagi Stadium 6 pm, 5 am EDT
Wataru Karashima (4-2, 2.94) vs Daiki Tajima (8-3, 2.43)
Lions vs Fighters: Seibu Dome 6 pm, 5 am EDT
Chihiro Sumida (1-8, 3.15) vs Haruka Nemoto (2-3, 2.79)
Hawks vs Marines: Fukuoka Dome 6 pm, 5 am EDT
Shuta Ishikawa (5-7, 3.57) vs Ayumu Ishikawa (6-5, 2.54)
Giants vs Swallows: Osaka Dome 6 pm, 5 am EDT
Haruto Inoue (0-1, 4.35) vs Hirotoshi Takanashi (7-6, 2.99)
BayStars vs Dragons: Yokohama Stadium 6 pm, 5 am EDT
Haruhiro Hamaguchi (6-4, 2.42) vs Akiyoshi Katsuno (0-2, 3.45)
Tigers vs Carp: Koshien Stadium 6 pm, 5 am EDT
Masashi Ito (8-5, 2.11) vs Allen Kuri (5-8, 3.12)
Active roster moves 8/29/2022
Deactivated players can be re-activated from 9/8
Central League
Activated
None
Dectivated
| Swallows | P | 47 | Keiji Takahashi |
| Tigers | P | 20 | Daichi Moriki |
| Giants | IF | 48 | Zelous Wheeler |
| Carp | P | 12 | Haruki Ohmichi |
| Dragons | P | 13 | Yuki Hashimoto |
| BayStars | OF | 61 | Tatsuo Ebina |
Pacific League
Activated
| Marines | P | 62 | Ryotaro Mori |
| Hawks | P | 61 | Masato Okumura |
Dectivated
| Buffaloes | P | 15 | Ren Mukunoki |
| Buffaloes | P | 20 | Taisuke Kondoh |
| Buffaloes | IF | 5 | Masahiro Nishino |
| Marines | C | 53 | Naoya Emura |
| Hawks | P | 18 | Shota Takeda |
Active roster moves 8/30/2022
Deactivated players can be re-activated from 9/9
Central League
Activated
| Swallows | P | 40 | Yuta Ichikawa |
| Tigers | C | 2 | Ryutaro Umeno |
| Tigers | IF | 31 | Jefry Marte |
| Giants | OF | 44 | Adam Walker |
| Carp | OF | 9 | Shogo Akiyama |
| Dragons | P | 50 | Tatsuya Shimizu |
| BayStars | OF | 23 | Tyler Austin |
Dectivated
| Tigers | C | 39 | Yuki Sakaeda |
Pacific League
Activated
| Buffaloes | P | 57 | Nobuyoshi Yamada |
| Buffaloes | C | 33 | Masato Matsui |
| Buffaloes | IF | 53 | Sho Gibo |
| Buffaloes | OF | 25 | Ryo Nishimura |
| Marines | OF | 3 | Katsuya Kakunaka |
| Lions | IF | 62 | Natsuo Takizawa |
Dectivated
| Buffaloes | IF | 9 | Tomoya Noguchi |
| Marines | OF | 31 | Tsuyoshi Sugano |
| Lions | IF | 52 | Haruka Yamada |
