On Tuesday in Japan, the Japan Series rematch series got started in Osaka, sans Yoshinobu Yamamoto, while each league leader played the other league’s last place team. Andre Jackson had a big game for the DeNA BayStars, and the interleague-leading Rakuten Eagles had a big comeback.
Off the field we had some Tuesday activations, while the batter and pitcher of the month awards were announced.
The Nippon Ham Fighters called up Kotaro Kiyomiya ahead of their interleague series against Chunichi. In 25 Eastern League games this season, mostly when rehabbing from an injury suffered around the start of spring training, Kiyomiya has slashed .290/.379/.476 with 17 walks and 18 strikeouts. The Dragons have also recalled veteran infielder Shuhei Takahashi and their 2021 top draft pick, 25-year-old outfielder Kenta Bright, who has not been hitting for average or power on the farm, but has drawn lots of walks. Takahashi suffered a leg injury on April 16.
The Yakult Swallows dropped a pair of veterans, right-hander Yasuhiro Ogawa and regular catcher Yuhei Nakamura, who was dropped the last two games from the starting lineup in favor of Naoki Matsumoto with the team’s go-to reserves, Soma Uchiyama and Yudai Koga unavailable. As a backup Yakult brought up their fourth-round pick from last year’s draft, 18-year-old Kyo Suzuki for his first taste of big league baseball.
Tuesday’s games:
Buffaloes 4, Tigers 0: At Osaka UFO Dome, Ryuhei Sotani (4-2) struck out 12 through six innings while allowing seven singles and no walks as Orix won its sixth straight to start its 2023 Japan Series rematch home stand.
After Hanshin stranded four runners through the first four innings, Orix cashed in its first scoring opportunity against Shoki Murakami (2-5) when Yuma Tongu doubled in Kotaro Kurebayashi from second with two outs in the fifth. The Buffaloes ryo, ryo, ryoed their boat to a run in the sixth on one-out singles from Ryoto Kita, Ryo Ota and Ryoma Nishikawa.
Nobuyoshi Yamada struck out the side in the seventh, and the Tigers hit a couple of bullets in the seventh, but web gems from Yuma Mune at third and Tongu at first made it a 1-2-3 inning. Doubles by Kita and Ota and a Nishikawa single made it 4-0 in the eighth against Murakami, who went the distance.
Dragons 4, Fighters 0: At Kitahiroshima Taxpayers Burden Field, Hiroto Takahashi (3-0) struck out seven over seven innings to lower his ERA to 0.56, Orlando Calixte got the visitors on the board with a fourth-inning leadoff homer against Kenta Uehara (0-3), and Shinya Matsuyama worked a scoreless eighth for the Dragons before a Seiya Hosokawa double and a Takuma Kato single plated a ninth-inning insurance run, and Mikiya Tanaka homered to ice the proceedings.
Eagles 7, Giants 6: At Miyagi Stadium, Yuya Ogo’s two-out two-run sayonara double off Alberto Baldonado (1-2) completed a three-run ninth-inning rally as Rakuten overcame a late four-run deficit to hand Yomiuri its fourth straight loss.
An error and back-to-back home runs from Yukinori Kishida and Yuta Izuguchi made it 3-0 Yomiuri against Cody Ponce in the second. The Eagles got two back in the third on three singles, an error and a Daichi Suzuki sacrifice fly in the third, but made it 6-2 in the fourth on Yoshihiro Maru‘s three-run homer.
Giants starter Iori Yamasaki pitched out of some tight spots to allow just two runs, one earned, on eight hits and a hit batsman, but rookie Yuhi Nishidate nearly blew the game up in the eighth, surrendering a Maikel Franco leadoff infield single and a two-run jack to Hideto Asamura.
Suzuki opened the ninth with a single, before Baldonado issued three one-out walks. The Giants outfield came in, but there was no defense to Ogo’s fly to the warning track in right center.
Carp 2, Lions 1: At the domed stadium formerly known as “Prince,” Hiroki Tokoda (7-3) took a shutout into the eighth inning until Ryusei Sato’s one-out homer spoiled it, but the lefty retired the last two batters, left after 108 pitches and Ryoji Kuribayashi recorded his 18th save as the Central League leaders dealt the PL’s last-place Lions their eighth straight loss, the first time in franchise history the team had lost eight straight in consecutive months.
Hiroshima’s Ryosuke Kikuchi hit a solo homer off Tatsuya Imai (3-3) in the second, and Masaya Yano doubled and scored on a Ryuhei Matsuyama sacrifice fly in the seventh to make it 2-0.
BayStars 4, Marines 0: At Chiba Marine Stadium, Andre Jackson (3-5) held Lotte to two hits and two walks while striking out eight over eight innings after getting an early lead.
Three straight singles by Hikaru Ito, Yamato Maeda and Kento Inoue set up DeNA’s four-run second, rookie Ryuki Watarai, in the majors for the first time since May 12, tripled to the gap and to make it 3-0 and scored on Yuki Kajiwara’s double off Kazuya Ojima (4-5).
Hawks 4, Swallows 2: At Fukuoka “Your company’s name can go here” Dome, Yakult was extremely fortunate to score at all against Kohei Arihara (6-3), who struck out nine over seven innings, but SoftBank came back after six.
Four straight singles from Kenta Imamiya, Ryoya Kurihara, Hotaka Yamakawa and Kensuke Kondo tied it in the seventh against Kojiro Yoshimura (4-4). A sacrifice and an Akira Nakamura two-run single followed to put SoftBank in front.
Haruki Nishikawa led off Yakult’s fourth with a triple. A miss judgement by the defense and a walk loaded the bases before SoftBank starter Kohei Arihara jammed Jose Osuna only to get burned on a two-run flare single.
Carp sweep monthly awards
As predicted on this week’s Japan Baseball Weekly Podcast, which featured John E. Gibson’s interview with Carter Stewart Jr., the Hiroshima Carp swept the Central League’s monthly awards with singles hitter Kaito Kozono. John freaked out a bit when I called Kozono’s .368 “empty,” but that was before I was able to say his 15 RBIs aren’t nothing to sneeze at. Carp lefty Hiroki Tokoda had something like an “empty singles hitter” version of the pitching award, going 4-0 with just 12 strikeouts in 28-2/3 innings.
The Pacific League’s winners were fairly routine. SoftBank’s Ryoya Kurihara had the kind of month we have expected him to produce since he broke out in 2020, leading the league in batting average, on-base percentage, slugging average, doubles and RBIs. Seibu rookie Natsuki Takeuchi, the joint overall top draft pick last year–selected by three teams along with DeNA outfielder Ryuki Watarai. Takeuchi went 3-0 with a PL-best 0.63 ERA, allowing 19 hits in while striking out 20 in 28-2/3 innings.
