On Saturday, the Yakult Swallows may be hoping the Yomiuri Giants switch to green tea, having had more than their fill of Gregory “El Coffee” Polanco this weekend, while Shogo Akiyama provided the big finish in Hiroshima, Brandon Laird turned things around for Lotte, Masataka Yoshida did the things he does, and Masahiro Tanaka took a painful loss.
The Swallows were also without cleanup hitter Munetaka Murakami after their third baseman, who never missed a beat when the team became a COVID cluster last month, was deactivated due to fatigue although a PCR test came back negative, and his condition will be monitores.
Saturday’s games
Hawks 9, Eagles 1: At Fukuoka Dome, Shota Takeda (1-0) worked six-plus impressive innings in his first start of the season to outpitch Masahiro Tanaka (5-7), who was doomed by a weird three-run fifth inning when the Hawks broke a 1-1 tie and took control of the game.
The Hawks opened the scoring on a two-out third-inning walk to Ukyo Shuto, a stolen base and an Akira Kawase double. The Eagles barely managed to tie it in the fourth, when Hiroto Kobukata barely beat out an infield single, stole second and scored on a line single from Hiroaki Shimauchi.
Tanaka was in control through four innings, but walked the leadoff batter in the fifth and grooved the next pitch down the pipe for a Nobuhiro Matsuda single. Tanaka went to field the ensuing sacrifice, but took his eye off the ball, allowing the infield single to load the bases.
Ryosuke Tatsumi caught a sinking liner in center but his throw home was high, when anything close to the base would have nailed Matsuda trying to score from third. Back-to-back RBI singles followed from Taisei Makihara and Yuki Yanagita, who’d been overmatched in his first two at-bats.
Marines 2, Lions 1: At Seibu Dome, Brandon Laird’s eighth-inning two-run pinch-hit homer, his 15th, on a 3-0 pitch from Yoshinobu Mizukami (4-2) lifted Seibu over Lotte.
Hotaka Yamakawa broke the ice in the second with a solo homer, his 32nd, off Kazuya Ojima (2-7), who allowed six hits but no walks while striking out seven over eight innings. Yamakawa opened the ninth with a double off closer Naoya Masuda, who hung on for his 25th save.
Seibu submarine right-hander Kaito Yoza allowed two hits, a walk and hit a batter in his seven scoreless innings.
Buffaloes 3, Fighters 1: At Osaka Dome, rookie Hitomi Honda faced down a one-out bases-loaded predicament in the ninth inning by catching Kensuke Kondo looking at a forkball in the zone and striking out Kotaro Kiyomiya on a high fastball out of the zone to end it and earn his second save and bring an end to another game where Orix is vying with Seibu for the worst uniforms of the year honor.
Seibu’s look they were finger painted in beige and tan, while the Buffaloes are olive, although I like those Buffaloes caps.
Yuma Imagawa doubled in Kenshi Sugiya in the first inning off rookie Orix right-hander Kohei Azuma (1-0), who worked 5-1/3 innings to earn his first career victory. Masataka Yoshida put Orix in front in the bottom of the inning, plating Shuhei Fukuda with his 12th home run, off Eito Tanaka (1-3). Fukuda singled and scored a seventh-inning insurance run thanks to a Keita Nakagawa single and a Yoshida double.
As is bound to happen now and then, Tsuyoshi Shinjo did something I’ve never seen from a manager. When his pitcher hit Yutaro Sugimoto with a pitch and the two had words, Shinjo ran out to apologize, and Sugimoto couldn’t help but break out laughing.
Giants 3, Swallows 2: At Jingu Stadium, playing without Murakami, took a 2-0 lead behind side-armerReiji Kozawa. Yasutaka Shiomi was hit by a pitch and scored on a Domingo Santana first-inning single, and then doubled in rookie Yoshihiro Akahane, who was playing in his first game after being called up to start at third in place of Murakami.
Daisuke Naoe, the Giants’ third straight rookie starter, received an automatic ejection after hitting Akahane in the bill of the helmet to open the fifth. He walked one struck out five and allowed just one hit.
Polanco, who struck out and flied out against the wicked movement Kozawa had been generating, got a hold of a straight hanging breaking ball in the sixth to tie it 2-2, and hit it for his third homer of the series and 17th of the season.
He then broke the tie in the eighth. Noboru Shimizu (5-2) walked Yoshihiro Maru to open the inning, Riku Masuda stole second, took third on a fly to right and scored on Polanco’s not very deep sac fly to left.
For the second straight night, the ninth inning provided more drama than the Giants would have wanted. Ian Krol surrendered Norichika Aoki’s two-out pinch-hit single. An easy fly to center should have ended it but Masuda dropped it, delaying Krol’s first save and manager Tatsunori Hara’s 1,200th win until the right-hander retired the next batter.
Carp 6, Tigers 5: At Hiroshima Citizens Stadium, Shintaro Fujinami struck out seven over 6-1/3 innings while allowing two runs on a walk, five hits and two hit batsmen and was poised to earn the win until Hiroshima scored four runs in the ninth, capped by Shogo Akiyama’s tie-breaking single.
Kaito Kozono, Tsubasa Aizawa and Takashi Uemoto singled to open the ninth against closer Suguru Iwazaki (1-4) and make it a 5-3 game. With one out, the tying runs scored when a bad hop got past him into left field, and Akiyama plated him from second with a single to right.
Kairi Shimada and Koji Chikamoto each reached base three times and scored twice. With the Tigers leading 1-0 on a Ryutaro Umeno RBI single in the second, Shimada and Chikamoto singled to open the third, Teruaki Sato walked, one run scored on a groundout and Aderlin Rodriguez made it 3-0 with a sac fly.
With two outs in the fourth, Shimada tripled, Chikamoto was hit by a pitch, and Sato doubled them both home. Ryan McBroom was hit by a pitch to open the fourth and scored on a double play. Ryoma Nishikawa singled to open the seventh to set up Hiroshima’s second run, on Takayoshi Noma’s third single of the game.
BayStars 1, Dragons 0: At Nagoya Dome, Raidel Martinez (2-2) allowed the only run in the ninth on a hit batsman, a two-out single that Dayan Viciedo kept in the infield to prevent the runner scoring from second, and a Shugo Maki liner that right fielder Yuki Okabayashi came within a hair of making a catch on.
Chunichi lefty Shinnosuke Ogasawara struck out seven while allowing four hits and no walks over eight innings, while the Dragons did their, “let’s get runners on and leave them there” act, stranding 10 through eight innings.
Taisei Irie (2-0) who allowed three singles in a scoreless eighth, earned the win for the BayStars, while Yasuaki Yamasaki nailed down his 23rd save.
Sunday’s starting pitchers
Lions vs Marines: Seibu Dome 5 pm, 4 am EDT
Dietrich Enns (6-6, 2.62) vs Ryotaro Mori (0-0, 0.00)
Buffaloes vs Fighters: Osaka Dome 1 pm, 12 midnight EDT
Masaru Nakamura (0-0, 20.25) vs Haruka Nemoto (1-2, 3.28)
Hawks vs Eagles: Fukuoka Dome 1 pm, 12 midnight EDT
Tsuyoshi Wada (3-2, 1.89) vs Masaru Fujii (1-2, 4.30)
Swallows vs Giants: Jingu Stadium 6 pm, 5 am EDT
Juri Hara (6-4, 4.52) vs Matt Shoemaker (4-7, 4.38)
Dragons vs BayStars: Nagoya Dome 2 pm, 1 am EDT
Hiroto Takahashi (3-4, 2.75) vs Fernando Romero (4-5, 5.43)
Carp vs Tigers: Hiroshima Citizen’s Stadium 6 pm, 5 am EDT
Atsushi Endo (3-5, 2.70) vs Joe Gunkel (5-5, 2.27)
Active roster moves 8/6/2022
Deactivated players can be re-activated from 8/16
Central League
Activated
| Swallows | P | 70 | Reiji Kozawa |
| Swallows | IF | 71 | Yoshihiro Akahane |
| Tigers | P | 19 | Shintaro Fujinami |
| Giants | P | 54 | Daisuke Naoe |
| Carp | OF | 63 | Ryoma Nishikawa |
| Dragons | IF | 32 | Masami Ishigaki |
| BayStars | P | 20 | Yuya Sakamoto |
Dectivated
| Swallows | IF | 55 | Munetaka Murakami |
| Carp | IF | 35 | Takumi Miyoshi |
| Dragons | P | 54 | Kento Fujishima |
| Dragons | OF | 49 | Kosuke Ito |
| BayStars | P | 47 | Yoshiki Sunada |
| BayStars | OF | 8 | Kazuki Kamizato |
Pacific League
Activated
| Buffaloes | IF | 5 | Masahiro Nishino |
| Marines | P | 14 | Kazuya Ojima |
| Marines | IF | 00 | Raito Ikeda |
| Hawks | P | 50 | Yugo Bando |
Dectivated
| Buffaloes | IF | 31 | Ryo Ota |
| Marines | OF | 1 | Kyota Fujiwara |
| Hawks | P | 40 | Kazuki Sugiyama |
