The CL and PL entered Wednesday’s games tied at 21-21 in interleague play, but the PL just missed another sweep. The SoftBank Hawks hit a franchise wins milestone and Jingu Stadium’s summer fireworks came early.

We also have the first returns from this year’s all-star fan vote.

Marines battery making mark in voting

One never knows what to make of the fan balloting, but for what it’s worth, Lotte’s Roki Sasaki leads the all-star fan voting for starting pitchers with 36,896 over Yoshinobu Yamamoto’s 16,302, while his 19-year-old batterymate Ko Matsukawa tops the PL catchers with 38,333 over SoftBank’s Takuya Kai’s 15,111.

Yomiuri rookie closer Taisei Ota leads the CL closer vote by 2-1 over last year’s rookie sensation, Hiroshima’s Ryoji Kuribayashi. In kind of a surprise, because popularity really IS the thing, Shugo Makita of DeNA is a deserving leader over Yakult’s Tetsuto Yamada.

Ryan McBroom of the Carp, leads the CL’s first base vote with 24,977 over, ugh, Sho Nakata with 20,557.

Nuff said about that.

Wednesday’s games

Hawks 6, Giants 3: At Tokyo Dome, Nao Higashihama (5-1) wasn’t quite as sharp as he was in his no-hitter, but he wasn’t far off that either, as he consistently threw first strikes and got ahead in counts, but allowed six hits, three solo home runs, two of them on first-pitch strikes, while walking none over seven innings.

Akira Nakamura’s one-out fourth-inning double scored Taisei Makihara with the game’s first run off rookie Yuji Akahoshi (2-3). Tatsuru Yanagimachi’s two-out flare scored Yuki Yanagita and Nakamura.

Naoki Yoshikawa hit his second homer in the bottom of the fourth, Takuya Kai singled, to open the Hawks’ fifth, Higashihama reached on a sacrifice and a fielder’s choice, and after another sacrifice, Makihara walked and Yanagita cleared the bases with a three-run double.

Adam Walker hit his 10^th homer, in the sixth, and rookie Riku Matsuda his second, in the seventh. Reclamation project Koya Fuji allowed a hit over two innings to earn his   first career save.

The win made the Hawks Japanese pro baseball’s second franchise with 5,500 wins after the Giants. Hall of Famer Kazuto Tsuruoka managed the team to 1,773 of those wins, current SoftBank chairman Sadaharu Oh to 968.

Giants-Hawks highlights

Marines 4, Swallows 3: At Jingu Stadium, Shogo Nakamura opened the scoring with a first-inning solo homer, his third, and doubled and scored the go-ahead run on Brandon Laird’s two-out sixth-inning single to break a 3-3 tie. Hisanori Yasuda twice gave the Marines the lead with solo homers in the second and fourth only for Yakult to answer with another home run.

In addition to those five hits, Juri Hara (4-3) allowed just one other runner to reach on a walk in his six innings. Manabu Mima (2-4) stranded five runners over five innings to earn the win.  Taiki Tojo, Lotte’s third pitcher, stranded two more in the seventh before Tayron Guerrero and Naoya Masuda overpowered the Swallows in the eighth and ninth. Masuda earned his 11^th save.

Tetsuto Yamada’s first-inning homer, his 11^th and his third in four games, opened the scoring, Jose Osuna tied in the second with his fifth and Taiki Hamada tied it in the fourth with his fourth of the season. Hamada nearly made a circus catch in left with two outs on Nakamura, but the ball kicked off his glove, and Marines captain was credited with a double.

Tigers 5, Lions 4: At Koshien Stadium, Ren Kajiya retired Aito Takeda for the first time in the game to end the Lions’ four-run sixth with the bases loaded, and setup man Atsuki Yuasa struck out Takeda to end the Lions’ eighth with two on as Hanshin held on to prevent the PL’s second sweep in four days.

The top five hitters in the Tigers order each scored, Kairi Shimada singling twice and doubling from the leadoff spot. Leading 1-0 in the third, Teruaki Sato singled in Shimada and Yusuke Oyama homered with two on to make it 5-0 against submariner Kaito Yoza (3-2).

Junya Nishi (3-1) was overpowering his first time through the Lions’ lineup, but allowed the visitors to load the bases in the fourth on two one-out singles and a walk. He got Brian O’Grady to fly out, and struck out Tomoya Mori on a picture-perfect splitter to escape the jam.

Takeda double to open the Lions’ sixth and things quickly went downhill. Wu Nien-ting walked, and O’Grady singled home Takeda. Mori drew a walk off reliever Yuta Watanabe, Takeya Nakamura singled in a run, and Takumi Kuriyama, who hit a pinch-hit sayonara homer over the weekend, doubled in two. Kajiya walked Shuta Tonosaki but made up for it against Takeda as the Lions stranded 11 runners, while the Tigers only left five men on.

Buffaloes 5, BayStars 1: At Yokohama Stadium, Jacob Waguespack (1-3) struck out seven while allowing one run on three hits and a walk over five innings for his first win in Japan, and the Orix bullpen allowed just two more runners to reach the rest of the way.

Shuhei Fukuda and Yuma Mune singled to open the first against Fernando Romero (3-5) and Fukuda scored on a wild pitch. Yutaro Sugimoto hit his fourth home run, with Fukuda on base, in the third, and Waguespack squeezed in a run, in the fourth.

Eagles 2, Dragons 0: At Nagoya Dome, Hiroaki Shimauchi had three chances to drive in runs, and had a pair of RBI singles, while Chunichi wasted all three of its scoring opportunities.

Wataru Karashima (2-0) allowed five singles but no walks while striking out three over 5-2/3 innings. Naoto Nishiguchi pitched the Eagles out of a two-out bases-loaded jam in the sixth, before Tomohiro Anraku, Sung Chia-hao and Yuki Matsui tidied up. Matsui got his 14^th save.

Fighters 5, Carp 1: At Hiroshima Citizen’s Stadium, Chusei Mannami homered in the second, doubled and scored in the fourth, and singled in a run in the fifth to make it 3-0 Nippon Ham.

Two-way project Kenta Uehara (1-0) went 0-for-3 at the plate but gave the Fighters their second six-scoreless-inning start of the series, and the bullpen didn’t mess it up. Kotaro Kiyomiya reached base three times and Yuki James Nomura doubled in a run in the Fighters’ two-run ninth.

Starting pitchers

Giants vs Hawks: Tokyo Dome 6 pm, 5 am EDT

Tomoyuki Sugano (5-4, 3.19) vs Colin Rea (3-2, 4.59)

Swallows vs Marines: Jingu Stadium 6 pm, 5 am EDT

Andrew Suarez (0-0, 5.40) vs Kazuya Ojima (0-5, 2.81)

BayStars vs Buffaloes: Yokohama Stadium 6 pm, 5 am EDT

Haruhiro Hamaguchi (2-0, 0.69) vs Sachiya Yamasaki (1-4, 3.11)

Dragons vs Eagles: Nagoya Dome 6 pm, 5 am EDT

Takahiro Matsuba (2-1, 2.45) vs Takayuki Kishi (4-1, 2.81)

Tigers vs Lions: Koshien Stadium 6 pm, 5 am EDT

Joe Gunkel (1-4, 2.77) vs Chihiro Sumida (1-5, 3.06)

Carp vs Fighters: Hiroshima Citizen’s Stadium 6 pm, 5 am EDT

Allen Kuri (2-3, 2.89) vs Hiromi Ito (5-3, 3.03)

Active roster moves 6/1/2022

Deactivated players can be re-activated from 6/11

Central League

Activated

Dectivated

Pacific League

Activated

Dectivated

Starting pitchers

Giants vs Hawks: Tokyo Dome 6 pm, 5 am EDT

Tomoyuki Sugano (5-4, 3.19) vs Colin Rea (3-2, 4.59)

Swallows vs Marines: Jingu Stadium 6 pm, 5 am EDT

Andrew Suarez (0-0, 5.40) vs Kazuya Ojima (0-5, 2.81)

BayStars vs Buffaloes: Yokohama Stadium 6 pm, 5 am EDT

Haruhiro Hamaguchi (2-0, 0.69) vs Sachiya Yamasaki (1-4, 3.11)

Dragons vs Eagles: Nagoya Dome 6 pm, 5 am EDT

Takahiro Matsuba (2-1, 2.45) vs Takayuki Kishi (4-1, 2.81)

Tigers vs Lions: Koshien Stadium 6 pm, 5 am EDT

Joe Gunkel (1-4, 2.77) vs Chihiro Sumida (1-5, 3.06)

Carp vs Fighters: Hiroshima Citizen’s Stadium 6 pm, 5 am EDT

Allen Kuri (2-3, 2.89) vs Hiromi Ito (5-3, 3.03)

Active roster moves 6/1/2022

Deactivated players can be re-activated from 6/11

Central League

Activated

Dectivated

Pacific League

Activated

Dectivated