Here’s Thursday’s COVID scorecard.
Chunichi 2, DeNA 1, Lotte 1, Nippon Ham 1. Those are not runs but suspected cases of COVID-19 from their major league rosters. Among those were DeNA’s two-time home run champ, Neftali Soto, and Nippon Ham’s all-star third baseman Yuki James Nomura, who has been exhibiting symptoms but had yet to test positive.
They were dwarfed by the Yomiuri Giants’ toll in recent days. The team reported a total of 38 new infections, including coaches and staff, on Wednesday night, including a large chunk of their starting roster and ace pitcher Tomoyuki Sugano.
Mid-season offer: 3 free months
Jballallen.com depends on you readers to stay up and running, and your support is needed. All paid subscriptions this month get unlimited access to all content, and the free weekly newsletter as well.
So join now and thanks for your support!
On Thursday, the Giants announced they had suspended baseball activities after 41 players within the organization had tested positive in the past three days.
NPB also announced that it’s next commissioner will be 79-year-old Sadayuki Sakakibara, the former chairman of the Japan Business Federation and that he’ll replace the outgoing Atsushi Saito in November in one of Japan’s least important jobs.
Pacific League TV is again making things difficult, so no highlights tonight.
Thursday’s games
Buffaloes 4, Fighters 3: At Osaka Dome, Masataka Yoshida tied it with his second home run in two nights, a two-run sixth-inning shot off Cody Ponce (1-2). Yutaro Sugimoto singled, Joe McCarthy doubled and both scored on a ground ball to third, and an error by reserve infielder Takuya Kori, whose first career homer had put the Fighters up 2-0 in the fifth.
Marines 5, Lions 4: At Chiba Marine Stadium, Hiromi Oka singled in two runs in the ninth to tie it and Akito Takabe singled in the winning run as Kaima Taira (1-3), standing in for closer Taishi Masuda, blew a 4-2 lead.
Takashi Ogino and Shogo Nakamura reached in the first and scored off Seibu’s Tatsuya Imai with Toshiya Sato singling in one run to cap the rally. Seibu came back against Kota Futaki in the fourth on Hotaka Yamakawa’s 29th home run, and took the lead in the sixth, when Takeya Nakamura doubled in three.
Marines reliever Seiya Dohi, who pitched in just one game in the bigs last season, and hadn’t won since 2019, worked a scoreless ninth in his season debut to pick up the win.
Hawks 7, Eagles 0: At Fukuoka Dome, Kodai Senga (8-3) struck out eight over eight innings in a game that started as a tight pitchers’ duel against Rakuten veteran Takayuki Kishi (6-5).
Kenta Imamiya singled and scored the first of his three runs in the second, on a Takuya Kai double, and Yuki Yanagita opened the game u pwith a two-run fifth-inning triple.
Friday’s starting pitchers
Lions vs Eagles: Seibu Dome 6 pm, 5 am EDT
Yutaro Watanabe (0-1, 7.56) vs Takahiro Norimoto (6-4, 3.08)
Buffaloes vs Hawks: Osaka Dome 6 pm, 5 am EDT
Hiroya Miyagi (6-5, 3.53) vs Kazuki Sugiyama (1-3, 7.04)
Swallows vs Carp: Jingu Stadium 6 pm, 5 am EDT
Yasuhiro Ogawa (5-4, 2.51) vs Daichi Osera (7-5, 3.95)
Tigers vs BayStars: Koshien Stadium 6 pm, 5 am EDT
Koyo Aoyagi (10-1, 1.37) vs Yuya Sakamoto (0-2, 6.38)
Active roster moves 7/21/2022
Deactivated players can be re-activated from 7/31
Central League
Dectivated
| Swallows | P | 47 | Keiji Takahashi |
| Swallows | IF | 7 | Seiichi Uchikawa |
| Giants | P | 11 | Ryuta Heinai |
| Giants | P | 18 | Tomoyuki Sugano |
| Giants | P | 31 | Yuji Akahoshi |
| Giants | P | 97 | Haruto Inoue |
| Giants | P | 99 | Matt Shoemaker |
| Giants | C | 24 | Takumi Oshiro |
| Giants | C | 27 | Yukinori Kishida |
| Giants | IF | 00 | Dai Yuasa |
| Giants | IF | 10 | Sho Nakata |
| Giants | IF | 25 | Kazuma Okamoto |
| Giants | IF | 52 | Takumi Kitamura |
| Giants | IF | 61 | Riku Masuda |
| Giants | OF | 8 | Yoshihiro Maru |
| Dragons | P | 99 | Yohan Tavarez |
| Dragons | OF | 52 | Shohei Kato |
Pacific League
Activated
| Buffaloes | P | 21 | Daichi Takeyasu |
| Marines | IF | 55 | Adeiny Hechavarria |
| Hawks | P | 53 | Keisuke Izumi |
| Fighters | OF | 67 | Shoto Kataoka |
Dectivated
| Buffaloes | P | 15 | Ren Mukunoki |
| Hawks | P | 60 | Ryota Nakamura |
| Fighters | P | 59 | Haruka Nemoto |
| Fighters | IF | 24 | Yuki Nomura |
