One manager came back from the sick list, another joined it, the Yomiuri Giants have called in sick again, but 10 teams did play on Saturday, when Pedro Revilla had a heck of a debut, and Masahiro Tanaka was rock solid.
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Shall we get to it?
Giants call in sick
The Yomiuri Giants, who were told to wait until today to call off their Sunday game against the DeNA BayStars, said Saturday that of the 69 players under contract, only two catchers, two infielders, and five outfielders were fit for duty and not in quarantine.
The team said it signed one developmental roster player to a standard contract, maxing out their roster at 70 and giving them three infielders, not enough to play a game.
It sounds an awful lot like the Giants aren’t expecting to play in the near future, but I may be wrong.
Sick days
| Team | Games | Dates |
|---|---|---|
| Eagles | 2 | April 2, 3 |
| BayStars | 4 | April 7-10 |
| Buffaloes | 3 | April 12-14 |
| Hawks | 2 | June 29, 30 |
| Swallows | 2 | July 9, 10 |
| Giants | 6 | July 21-31 |
Saturday’s games
Eagles 7, Fighters 0: At Miyagi Stadium, Masahiro Tanaka (6-7) was the pitcher we know and love again, throwing strikes getting ahead in the count and throwing some really good high fastballs over seven innings. He allowed five hits and pitched out of a couple of two-out pickles but that was it as he struck out seven and walked one.
The game marked the return of Fighters manager Tsuyoshi Shinjo from coronavirus quarantine, and the departure of Eagles manager Kazuhisa Ishii to said quarantine.
This reminds me of when the Los Angeles Dodgers announced the signing of Ishii by saying they wanted to bring his celebrity and fan following to their team in the way the rival San Francisco Giants had done by signing Shinjo.
Shinjo was a good defensive outfielder but an otherwise mediocre player, who did have pizzaz if nothing else, while Ishii was a quality pitcher, with virtually no appeal to anybody. It was like buying a tremendously valuable and useful truck and then claiming it was hotter than the sexiest but most useless sports car on the market.
Anyway, the Eagles are a team that will happily let pitchers self destruct if they can’t throw strikes, and this is what happened as four of Rakuten’s first five runs reached on free passes.
Lions 6, Hawks 0: At Fukuoka Dome, submarine right-hander Kaito Yoza (8-3) allowed seven hits, issued no walks and served up three double plays en route to his first career shutout. Yoza located with good movement until the Hawks looked like they had no idea what was coming and seemed to grow more and more impatient as the game went on.
Hotaka Yamakawa and Wu Nien-ting each singled in a first-inning run off rookie Tomohisa Ozeki (6-6), Sosuke Genda doubled in two more in the second. Tomoya Mori and Yamakawa each drove in a run in the fourth.
Buffaloes 6, Marines 4: At Chiba Marine Stadium, Yutaro Sugimoto singled in Kodai Sano with to break a 4-4 seventh-inning tie, and Yuma Mune doubled in Masataka Yoshida with an insurance run after Yoshida had been walked intentionally with two outs.
Adeiny Hechavarria opened the scoring with a second-inning RBI double, and Brandon Laird also doubled in a run to put the Marines up 4-3 in a three-run fifth. Kotaro Kurebayashi drove in three runs for the Buffaloes, breaking a 1-1 fourth-inning tie with a two-run single, and tying it in the sixth when he plated Sugimoto with a sac fly.
Jacob Waguespack earned earned his second save for the Buffaloes.
Tigers 7, Swallows 3: At Koshien Stadium, Hiroto Saiki (2-0) pitched out of third-inning jam, but faced little trouble other than Munetaka Murakami hitting his 34th home run with a man on in the sixth.
Yakult’s Reiji Kozawa (2-1) had Hanshin’s hitters where he wanted them until the fourth inning, when his specialty became hanging breaking balls up in the zone, and the Tigers delivered a five-run knockout blow.
Aderlin Rodriguez reached base three times, doubled, scored a run and drove one in, while Teruaki Sato hit his 16th homer for the Tigers.
Dragons 3, Carp 0: At Hiroshima Citizens Stadium, Cuban outfield import Pedro Revilla broke open a scoreless game with a fifth-inning leadoff homer in his Japan debut off Drew Anderson (3-4), and singled in an eighth-inning insurance run.
The home run cleared the stands in left field striking the netting that prevents balls from damaging property in the railroad yard leading into Hiroshima Station.
Lefty Shinnosuke Ogasawara (5-6) worked seven innings before Yariel Rodriguez and Raidel Martinez completed the six-hit shutout, the Dragons second in two games since the All-Star break.
Sunday’s starting pitchers
Eagles vs Fighters: Miyagi Stadium 5 pm, 4 am EDT
Shoma Fujihira (0-0, 2.57) vs Haruka Nemoto (1-2, 3.32)
Marines vs Buffaloes: Chiba Marine Stadium 5 pm, 4 am EDT
Kota Futaki (2-2, 2.97) vs Daiki Tajima (6-3, 2.54)
Hawks vs Lions: Fukuoka Dome 1 pm, 12 midnight EDT
Tsuyoshi Wada (2-2, 1.90) vs Dietrich Enns (6-5, 2.31)
Tigers vs Swallows: Koshien Stadium 6 pm, 5 am EDT
Joe Gunkel (5-5, 2.44) vs Juri Hara (6-4, 4.52)
Carp vs Dragons: Hiroshima Citizen’s Stadium 6 pm, 5 am EDT
Yusuke Nomura (1-1, 4.30) vs Takahiro Matsuba (4-3, 2.90)
Active roster moves 7/30/2022
Deactivated players can be re-activated from 8/9
Central League
Activated
| Swallows | P | 44 | Hiroki Onishi |
| Swallows | P | 70 | Reiji Kozawa |
| Tigers | P | 35 | Hiroto Saiki |
| Dragons | IF | 94 | Pedro Revilla |
Pacific League
Activated
| Buffaloes | P | 26 | Atsushi Nomi |
| Buffaloes | P | 95 | Kohei Azuma |
| Marines | P | 14 | Kazuya Ojima |
| Marines | P | 27 | Koshiro Sakamoto |
| Marines | C | 32 | Toshiya Sato |
| Eagles | P | 72 | Satoshi Miyamori |
| Fighters | P | 93 | Eito Tanaka |
| Lions | P | 44 | Kaito Yoza |
Dectivated
| Marines | IF | 68 | Kenji Nishimaki |
| Eagles | P | 52 | Taisei Tsurusaki |
