Japanese baseball was in RIP mode Friday, when news came that a pair of Hall of Fame pitchers, had died, Shigeru Sugishita, at the age of 97, and Manabu Kitabeppu, just a month shy of his 66th birthday. We had a closer milestone, a PL pitcher being a difference maker with his batting chops.
In other news, there was a neat story today in Kyodo News about a Canadian educator, the cofounder of the fan club Ohtani Canada, is using Shohei Ohtani to help teachers teach character building to elementary school kids, and make the world a better place.
RIP Shigeru Sugishita
I talked to Sugishita once at the Hall of Fame, when the late great Senichi Hoshino was inducted, and he struck me as a guy who cared about young pitchers, because he expressed his enthusiasm that high school baseball’s introduction of pitch limits might keep more youngsters from blowing out their arms early. I knew he was the “God of forkballs” and if it’s because of him that the pitch gradually became so popular in Japan, then maybe he was the Godfather of forkballs, too, which would be an even greater legacy.
Sadaharu Oh, whose 1959 rookie season with the Giants came after Sugimoto’s final CL season in 1958, said he’d heard Sugishita was a chess player on the mound.
“You can’t tell the story of Japanese baseball without Sugishita,” Oh said.
RIP Manabu Kitabeppu
When I came to Japan in 1984, Kitabeppu was the ace of the Hiroshima Carp at a time when they had a trio of big pitchers. He was a grumpy-looking guy who didn’t throw hard, and who by all accounts was a loner within his own team. Despite that, when he was a member of the annual Sawamura Award selection committee — generally a group of seven guys convinced no pitcher today could ever be as good as they were – I found Kitabeppu to be humblest member of the group, who always had positive things to say about the candidates.
Kitabeppu’s legend is that he joined the Carp in the spring of 1976 right after they’d won their first Central League pennant, took one look at the speed that ace pitcher Yoshiro Sotokoba and decided his future lie in pitching to contact, and that his command was based on lower body strength honed by bicycling every day from his home to his high school, a 40-kilometer round trip.
Friday’s games
Carp 2, Lions 0: At New Hiroshima Citizens Stadium, lefty Hiroki Tokoda (6-1) threw a five-hit shutout, and with fans in the stands wearing or waving Carp shirts with Kitabeppu’s No. 20, Shota Suekane and Shota Dobayashi shot one of Chihiro Sumida’s best games as a pro to hell when they hit back-to-back home runs to open the fifth. Sumida (2-6), the Lions’ top draft signing from 2021, struck out eight, walked one and allowed six hits over six innings.
Tigers 4, Hawks 1: At Koshien Stadium, Tsuyoshi Wada (5-2) retired the first nine Tigers before they began squaring up balls. Fourth-inning singles by Koji Chikamoto and Takumu Nakano and a walk to Sheldo Neuse set up Johan Mieses’ game-tying sacrifice fly. Wada was one strike away from getting out of the sixth with a runner on, when pinch-hitter Fumihito Haraguchi drove a fat 2-2 pitch for an RBI double and Teruaki Sato took him deep.
Jeremy Beasley, making his first start after 11 relief appearances and a month on the farm, allowed one run on four hits and two walks while striking out six in four innings. And the Hawks’ offense did not do any better against the relievers as Hanshin took a four-game lead over DeNA in the CL.
Tigers-Hawks highlights
Giants 6, Eagles 5: At Tokyo Dome, a hat-trick of home runs was the answer for Yomiuri with Hayato Sakamoto’s 10th of the season, with two on in the ninth, walking off the Eagles. With Yuki Matsui having pitched the previous three nights in Hiroshima, Tomohito Sakai (0-1) came in to protect a two-run ninth-inning lead and didn’t retire a batter.
Takayuki Kajitani led off with a double, Shinnosuke Shigenobu singled and Sakamoto put a 2-0 pitch in the stands. Sakamoto had singled in the first and scored on Kazuma Okamoto’s Shohei -Ohtani sized 17th home run in the first off Wataru Karashima, who also surrendered Sho Nakata’s ninth home run that gave the Giants a 3-0 lead.
After cruising threw five innings, Kai Yokogawa gave up Yukiya Ito’s pinch-hit homer. The rookie took his leave after the red-hot Takero Okajima hit Rakuten’s third straight single to open the seventh. New Eagle Toshiki Abe’s sac fly tied it.
Right-hander Kohei Suzuki, a pitcher Yomiuri got from Orix to help them avoid the eighth-inning meltdowns that plagued them in May, surrendered a two-run bomb to Yuya Ogo in the eighth.
The Giants have now won six straight and lead DeNA by 1-1/2 games in interleague and trail the second-place Yokohamas by 1-1/2 in the CL standings.
Fighters 2, Dragons 1: At Nagoya Dome, Naoyuki Uwasawa (6-4) won a tremendous pitchers’ duel with Shinnosuke Ogasawara (4-4) after the Fighters came from a run down to tie it in the third and take the lead in the fourth.
A day after Fighters submarine right-hander saw his first pro hit evaporate when his start against DeNA was called on account of rain, Uwasawa contributed to the Fighters’ tying run with his third career hit and his first in five years. Gosuke Kato’s sac fly then scored the runner, Daigo Kawakamibata, from third.
Chusei Mannami scored the go-ahead run on a two-out delayed double steal of home after he and Kawakamibata singled in the fourth.
Seiya Hosokawa continued to do in the majors what he’d done in the minors for years with DeNA, hit home runs and draw walks. His eighth homer made it 1-0 in the second, and his leadoff walk started a seventh-inning threat only for Uwasawa to extricate himself from a one-out bases-loaded pickle.
Dragons-Fighters highlights
Buffaloes 4, Swallows 1: At Jingu Stadium, Yakult manager Shingo Takatsu shot himself in the foot with two outs and the game scoreless in the second. With a runner on second, he intentionally walked light-hitting former Swallows Taishi Hiraoka to face Orix pitcher Sachiya Yamasaki (5-2). The lefty, who switched between first base and the mound in his days at Jingu Stadium in the Tokyo Six University league, singled in the game’s first run, and scored the third of the inning on a Marwin Gonzalez single off Dillon Peters (2-3).
Yamasaki went 2-for-3 to raise his career average to .278, while Hiraoka went 0-for-1 and is now slashing .207/.292/.371 in 813 career plate appearances.
Yutaro Sugimoto put the last nail in the Swallows’ box with an eighth-inning RBI double, and Yoshihisa Hirano, about whom former Swallows closer Scott McGough had some nice things to say recently, closed it out for his 10th save.
Swallows-Buffaloes highlights
Marines 5, Deniers 2: At Yokohama Stadium, Lotte closer Naoya Masuda retired three straight pinch-hitters to notch a three-run save. His 18th of the season made him the 10th player to save 200 games in Japan.
The Pacific League leaders loaded the bases against Haruhiro Hamaguchi (0-4) in the first on two walks and a single, and Katsuya Kakunaka unloaded them with a three-run double. That out of his system, Hamaguchi retired 10 of the next 12. Tyler Austin put DeNA on the board, singling in the first of two seventh-inning runs off C.C. Mercedes (3-3), who dodged some early bullets to allow just two runs over seven innings.
Tatsuhiro Tamura singled in two in the eighth. Roki Sasaki’s new best friend, Luis Perdomo, retired three straight in the home half for his Japan-leading 23rd hold before Masuda locked it up and threw away the key.
