On Tuesday, we learned that Hiroshima’s Makoto Aduwa is one composed, cool dude, and on a day of great importance for Japan, some really, really true words from his skipper, Takahiro Arai, along with other games and comments.
Tuesday’s games:
Carp 5, Giants 0: At Tokyo Ugly Dome, Makoto Aduwa (6-3) threw a three-hitter for his first career shutout. The son of a Nigerian father and a Japanese former volleyball player, the 196-centimeter Aduwa, whose career has been plagued by injury, showed little emotion when the final out was recorded and afterward excelled at putting things in perspective.
“More than anything, today is a special day for Hiroshima and for Japan,” he said, referring to the 79th anniversary of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima on Aug. 6, 1945. “Once the game started, however, that’s where my focus was.”
Shogo Akiyama doubled to lead off the game and scored on a Kaito Kozono single off Iori Yamasaki. The Carp added two runs in the fifth on a Ryosuke Kikuchi leadoff walk, a Kota Hayashi single, and a comebacker from Akiyama that Yamasaki couldn’t field that loaded the bases. Takayoshi Noma fouled off five two-strike pitches before lining Yamasaki’s 11th offering past first for a two-run single.
The Carp then started going deep as Shogo Sakakura and Shota Suekane, in his first game since he was hurt on June 22, opened the sixth inning with back-to-back home runs.
In the sixth inning, Aduwa fell behind Takumi Oshiro with two outs and the bases loaded, but got him to ground out.
“I focused on the little things,” Aduwa said. “If I did give up a hit there, it wasn’t like I was going to die or anything.”
When asked if he was always too cool for school and showing so little emotion, Aduwa said, “It’s a team game. It’s not all about me.”
Carp manager Takahiro Arai added, “Aug. 6 is a special day. I’m so thankful that we are able to play baseball in peace.”
Buffaloes 6, Lions 2: At Osaka UFO Dome, Orix scored in the second on a Leandro Cedeno leadoff single and Ryoma Nishikawa‘s fifth home run. Seibu tied it against Anderson Espinoza in the sixth. Takuya Hiruma reached second on a leadoff single and a throwing error, Takayoshi Yamamura singled him home and scored on a ground out. Nishikawa, however, singled with one out in the Buffaloes’ sixth, and Keita Nakagawa, whose error contributed to the Lions’ sixth, broke the tie with his sixth home run.
Espinoza was yanked after he issued a no-out walk after Yamamura’s single. Nobuyoshi Yamada (2-1) got out of the inning and earned the win.
Dragons 6, BayStars 2: At Gifu Nagaragawa Stadium, Hiroto Takahashi (9-1) struck out eight while allowing a run on seven hits over seven innings.
Seiya Hosokawa‘s two-run first-inning homer, his 14th, overturned a first-inning deficit when Takahashi allowed two singles, a sacrifice fly and his first run since June 28, in his only loss of the season, to the BayStars. Hosokawa’s RBI single made it 3-1 in the third after Hiroki Fukunaga singled with two outs and Orlando Calixte reached on an error.
Takahashi reached on an error to open the Dragons’ three-run fifth. A sacrifice, a Fukunaga single and a Calixte double made it 4-1, and Yuki Okabayashi singled in two.
“It would have been better if we had scored more runs early against Takahashi,” said DeNA skipper Daisuke Miura, echoing the sentiment of every other manager in Japan this year.
On a positive side, Dragons manager Kazuyoshi Tatsunami could do a postgame without ripping his players, and making it sound like it was beneath his dignity to be managing them.
“A lot of the pitches he threw made you go, ‘That is his good stuff,'” Tatsunami said.
Hawks 6, Marines 4: At Chiba Marine Stadium, SoftBank’s Livan Moinelo (8-3) allowed a run over seven innings while striking out seven
SoftBank opened with three quick runs against lefty Kazuya Ojima on a Taisei Makihara single, back-to-back doubles by Kenta Imamiya and Ryoya Kurihara, who scored the third on a Kensuke Kondo single.
Moinelo struggled with his control, issuing three walks and hitting a batter but not allowing any hits over four scoreless innings, although a fifth-inning leadoff infield single and a walk set up Hiromi Oka‘s RBI single as Lotte got on the board.
The Hawks chased Ojima in a three-run sixth, when Tomoya Masaki doubled in one, and Takuya Kai singled in another. Lotte had some late fireworks, when Gregory Polanco came off the bench with two on and no outs in the ninth and blasted his 17th home run, which did not put a smile on Hawks skipper Hiroki Kokubo’s face.
“Everybody was taking it easy (in the ninth) playing like we had this thing won,” Kokubo said. “This is a big thing we need to address.”
Fighters 5, Eagles 1, 10 innings: At Miyagi Stadium, Rakuten reliever Hayato Yuge pitched out of a one-out bases-loaded jam in the top of the ninth inning to prevent Nippon Ham from breaking the game open, allowing the Eagles to break up Shoma Kanemura‘s bid for a first career shutout by tying it 1-1 on three singles.
The Eagles sent their former ace-turned closer, Takahiro Norimoto to the mound in the 10th. But Nippon Ham loaded the bases with two outs against the right-hander who has been rock-solid all season. Norimoto got ahead of Mannami before giving him a center-cut 3-2 fastball that got out for his 15th home run.
While Shoma Kanemura was busy piling up outs, Nippon Ham broke through against tough Rakuten lefty Takahisa Hayakawa for a fifth-inning run on doubles from Kazunari Ishii and Kotaro Kiyomiya.
Hayakawa gave credit to the Fighters hitters for running up his pitch count and ending his night after five innings.
“They had a really good approach,” he said. “When I threw pitches I wanted to put them away, they prevented me from getting it done.”
Swallows 5, Tigers 4: At Jingu “Tokyo’s sacrifice to corporate greed and governmental malfeasance” Stadium, Yakult came from behind to beat Hanshin with Munetaka Murakami breaking an 0-for-9 stretch with a ninth-inning game-winning RBI single off Tigers closer Suguru Iwazaki (3-4).
Hanshin took a 1-0 first-inning lead against Miguel Yajure on a Takumu Nakano walk and singles by Shota Morishita and Teruaki Sato. Domingo Santana returned to Yakult’s lineup for the first time since he was hurt running out a July 5 double. He doubled and tied it on a Yuhei Nakamura single.
Tigers manager Akinobu Okada pulled Saiki after six innings and 115 pitches, which I swear is something one pretty much never heard 30 years ago.
“His pitch count was high,” Okada said. “They were able to see his forkball well.”
Sato’s ninth home run, with Koji Chikamoto aboard, made it 3-1 in the third, but singles by Santana and Kengo Ota to open Yakult’s fourth against Hiroto Saiki set the table for Tetsuto Yamada‘s ninth homer. Hanshin tied it in the eighth on a one-out Yusuke Oyama walk, a Ryo Watanabe pinch-hit double, and a Seiya Kinami infield single.
