Tuesday was a day for pitchers in Japan, 4.7 strikeouts per walk, a daily WHIP of 1.00 and 2.51 runs scored per nine innings.
The Fighters, currently based at city-owned Sapporo Dome, will open their 2023 season at their new team-owned retractable-roof facility in neighboring Kitahiroshima, on March 30 against an opponent to be named later, one day before 10 other teams open their season.
Tuesday also brought the talk of Japan’s first batting triple crown since 2004 into the realm of reality, and it’s Roki Eve, to boot, since he’s scheduled to duke it out against Nao Higashihama in a battle of two of this year’s four no-hit pitchers, so let’s get started.
Tuesday’s games
Fighters 5, Lions 3: At Sapporo Dome, there was a wild finish to a see-saw game.
Rookie Fighters catcher opened the scoring off Kona Takahashi with a second-inning RBI single. Takeya Nakamura hit a two-run fifth-inning home run, his seventh, off Fighters starter Hiromi Ito.
All-star Fighters third baseman Yuki James Nomura returned from a bout with COVID, and in in his first game in three weeks, scored in the eighth to tie it after his second leadoff double of the game.
Hotaka Yamakawa put the Lions up 3-2 with an RBI single off Ito in the ninth, but Bryan Rodriguez (1-1) got the final out in the inning, and Lions closer Tatsushi Masuda (2-2) surrendered back-to-back singles before Kensuke Kondo won it with his fourth home run of the season.
Hawks 3, Marines 0: At Chiba Marine Stadium, Shuta Ishikawa (4-6) showed what he can do when his command is good enough and his curveball is really dropping, while Ukyo Shuto and Kenta Imamiya put on a clinic at the expense of Lotte lefty Enny Romero (8-6).
Ishikawa struck out nine over eight innings while allowing three hits and no walks. Imamiya doubled in Shuto from first with two outs, putting a good swing on a low 2-2 pitch. Shuto created the Hawks’ first fifth-inning run by reaching on a one-out bunt. On the ensuing run-and-hit, Imamiya shot it behind the runner and it rolled into the gap, allowing Shuto to score from first on the single. Two more singles made it 3-0, Ishikawa took control, and Livan Moinelo closed it out for his 16th save.
Buffaloes 5, Eagles 1: At Osaka Dome, Daiki Tajima (8-3), a decent candidate to win July pitcher of the month honors, allowed a run over seven innings, while things went wrong from the outset for Rakuten. Leadoff man Shuhei Fukuda reached on a throwing error in the first and scored on a sac fly.
Third-inning doubles by Torai Fushimi and Masahiro Nishino made it 2-0, before Nishino scored on a Masataka Yoshida single and an error. Nishino tripled in Fukuda in the fourth, and Yoshida raised, who raised his average to .321 with two doubles, a single and a walk, set up the Buffaloes’ final run in the seventh.
Takahiro Norimoto (6-7) gave up four runs, two earned, over five innings.
Carp 2, Swallows 0: At Hiroshima Citizens Stadium, Hirotoshi Takanashi (5-6) pitching for the first time in a month after a bout with COVID, allowed a run over six innings, but Masato Morishita (9-6) needed just 104 pitches, with only Munetaka Murakami’s three hits troubling him.
Domingo Santana, who had been picking up the slack after Murakami’s record home run streak ended on Tuesday, was bamboozled by a pair of Morishita curves with Murakami on base, before missing a fastball third time up with a chance to do some damage.
Murakami who leads the CL in home runs with 39, 17 more than Hanshin’s Yusuke Oyama and Yomiuri’s Kazuma Okamoto, and 98 RBIs, 27 more than Oyama’s 71, moved into a virtual tie for batting average lead at .3226 to Chunichi leadoff man Yohei Oshima’s .3228, so there’s a chance the CL will have its first triple crown since Randy Bass had his second straight with Hanshin in 1986.
Dragons 3, Giants 2: At Nagoya Dome, the Giants got a run in the first off Yuya Yanagi (7-8), when Dragons fielder Pedro Revilla misplayed a shallow fly into a single, a wild pitch advanced the runner and Kazuma Okamoto singled him home. Singles by Dayan Viciedo, Takumi Kinoshita and Masami Ishigaki tied it in the second.
A Yoshihiro Maru walk and a Gregory Polanco double put Yomiuri up 2-1 in the third, but Chunichi came back on a Yohei Oshima single and a one-out Yuki Okabayashi double.
The Dragons took the lead in the bottom of the fifth after a fluke double play helped them out of the top of the inning, with Oshima singling and scoring after back-to-back infield singles.
Raidel Martinez earned his 24th save.
BayStars 3, Tigers 2: At Yokohama Stadium, Shota Imanaga (6-3), whose range of facial expressions seems to vary from disgusted scowl to bemused indifference, had plenty to scowl about early but went the distance on 113 pitches to earn his third shutout of the season after Taishi Ota’s two-out walk-off RBI single.
With closer Suguru Iwazaki getting the night off, Ren Kajiya (0-2) walked the leadoff hitter. With two outs and two on, a wild pitch the lead runner on third, and Ota’s pinch-hit single tied it.
In the first inning, the BayStars had a runner thrown out on the bases, and Tigers first baseman Aderlin Rodriguez reached up to haul in a two-out smoking liner to prevent two runs from scoring against tough side-arm righty Koyo Aoyagi. Hanshin then took a 2-0 lead.
Kento Itohara hit a one-out “double” that should have been a routine out, and scored when Naomasa Yokawa singled off a fat pitch and later scored when Imanaga made a beauty of a 2-2 pitch to Seiya Kinami whose two-out flare made it 2-0.
A pair of singles and a throwing error made it 2-1 in the fourth. Shugo Maki doubled to reach base for the third time in the sixth and scored his second run to tie it 2-2.
The Tigers recalled Kinami to his take over at short and in addition to his big hit, he delivered some big plays in place of Takumu Nakano, who took his job last year but was deactivated for the game after testing positive.
Wednesday’s starting pitchers
Fighters vs Lions: Sapporo Dome 6 pm, 5 am EDT
Kenta Uehara (3-3, 2.73) vs Katsunori Hirai (6-5, 2.33)
Marines vs Hawks: Chiba Marine Stadium 6 pm, 5 am EDT
Roki Sasaki (6-2, 1.89) vs Nao Higashihama (6-5, 2.87)
Buffaloes vs Eagles: Osaka Dome 6 pm, 5 am EDT
Yoshinobu Yamamoto (10-5, 1.80) vs Wataru Karashima (3-2, 2.82)
BayStars vs Tigers: Yokohama Stadium 6 pm, 5 am EDT
Haruhiro Hamaguchi (4-4, 2.70) vs Masashi Ito (8-2, 1.85)
Dragons vs Giants: Nagoya Dome 6 pm, 5 am EDT
Kotaro Ueda (0-3, 4.50) vs Shosei Togo (9-5, 2.87)
Carp vs Swallows: Hiroshima Citizen’s Stadium 6 pm, 5 am EDT
Allen Kuri (4-7, 3.44) vs Tomoya Hoshi (0-0, 3.00)
Active roster moves 8/9/2022
Deactivated players can be re-activated from 8/19
Central League
Activated
| Swallows | P | 14 | Hirotoshi Takanashi |
| Swallows | P | 43 | Daiki Yamamoto |
| Swallows | IF | 39 | Takeshi Miyamoto |
| Swallows | OF | 51 | Taiki Hamada |
| Tigers | IF | 00 | Yasuhiro Yamamoto |
| Tigers | IF | 94 | Fumihito Haraguchi |
| Tigers | OF | 25 | Taiga Egoshi |
| Giants | P | 11 | Ryuta Heinai |
| Giants | P | 26 | Nobutaka Imamura |
| Giants | P | 31 | Yuji Akahoshi |
| Giants | OF | 51 | Takumaru Yaoita |
| Carp | P | 36 | Atsuya Horie |
| Carp | IF | 35 | Takumi Miyoshi |
| Dragons | P | 46 | Hiroshi Suzuki |
| Dragons | C | 27 | Shota Ono |
| BayStars | IF | 6 | Keito Mori |
| BayStars | IF | 99 | Neftali Soto |
Dectivated
| Tigers | IF | 4 | Takahiro Kumagai |
| Tigers | IF | 51 | Takumu Nakano |
| Tigers | OF | 7 | Yoshio Itoi |
| Carp | C | 62 | Tomoki Ishihara |
| Carp | IF | 10 | Ryan McBroom |
| BayStars | IF | 9 | Yamato Maeda |
Pacific League
Activated
| Buffaloes | P | 16 | Yoshihisa Hirano |
| Buffaloes | C | 33 | Masato Matsui |
| Buffaloes | IF | 40 | Seiichiro Oshita |
| Buffaloes | OF | 27 | Kendai Gen |
| Marines | IF | 67 | Kenta Chatani |
| Eagles | IF | 39 | Yukiya Ito |
| Fighters | P | 41 | Bryan Rodriguez |
| Fighters | IF | 4 | Daigo Kamikawabata |
| Fighters | IF | 24 | Yuki Nomura |
| Lions | OF | 58 | Masato Kumashiro |
Dectivated
| Buffaloes | C | 2 | Kenya Wakatsuki |
