The Central League didn’t let the Pacific League rest on its laurels on Thursday, answering the PL’s 5-1 interleague Wednesday with a 5-1 mark the day after, although it required a big comeback from Yakult to attain that.
Elsewhere, the players union met with NPB in a working session and presented its ideas for an “active player draft” that ideally would give some players without opportunities at their present clubs another chance with a different team. The union also submitted a list of questions about NPB’s umpiring policies so that players can be better informed of how things stand. This was a response to Roki Sasaki‘s May 24 confrontation with umpire Kazuyuki Shirai.
Thursday’s games
Swallows 7, Marines 3: At Jingu Stadium, Yakult overcame an early three-run deficit to maintain their three-game CL lead.
Yakult lefty Andrew Suarez threw a bunch of first-inning strikes with mistakes in the heart of the zone and it cost him three runs.
Akito Takabe tripled to open the game on a hanging curve and scored on an error, when first baseman Jose Osuna may have taken his eye off the ball so he could avoid being hit by the barrel of a broken bat. Suarez then missed two straight pitches to Shogo Nakamura, who watched a fat slider before an easy swing drove a fastball well back in left for his second homer in two nights.
Tetsuto Yamada hit his 12th home run, his third in three games, in the sixth, and Kengo Ota hit his first, in the seventh to make it a one-run game.
Tayron Guerrero (1-2), who had been overpowering the night before, surrendered a leadoff single to ace pinch-hitter Shingo Kawabata, and walked Yamada on four pitches that weren’t all out of the zone. He struck out Munetaka Murakami, but then the wheels fell off and the right-hander was out of the game after rookie catcher Soma Uchiyama’s three-run double made it 6-3 with one out.
Giants 3, Hawks 0: At Tokyo Dome, Colin Rea (3-3) gave up home runs on fastballs he couldn’t have been too happy with that went a long way off the bats of Yoshihiro Maru in the first and Adam Walker in the third. Maru’s was his 10th, Walker’s his 11th. Maru hit his 11th to open the fifth against Yuki Matsumoto.
Tomoyuki Sugano (6-4) retired Yuki Yanagita to end the third with two on, ending the Hawks’ best scoring chance and preserving a 1-0 lead. Sugano scattered five hits and three walks over eight innings, and rookie Taisei Ota saved his 19th game.
Dragons 3, Eagles 2: At Nagoya Dome, Takayuki Kishi looked like a pitcher who had two settings, good stuff or good command. Early on, many of his pitches went where he wanted them but with nothing on them, and the Dragons took BP. When Kishi switched to the “good stuff” setting, he fell behind and missed a lot in the heart of the zone, and the Dragons took BP.
Trailing 3-0 in the seventh, Rakuten loaded the bases with no outs and got back-to-back run-scoring groundouts.
Tigers 6, Lions 1: At Koshien Stadium, Joe Gunkel (2-4) dominated the game for the first five innings, in which he walked none and outhit the Lions 2-1. He went 3-for-3 with an RBI, while allowing five hits and one walk over 6-1/3 innings.
Hanshin wasted a few chances before scoring three runs in the fourth despite center fielder Aito Takeda throwing out a runner at the plate for the second out. Gunkel then doubled in a run, another scored on an error and Takumu Nakano singled in another. The Lions loaded the bases in the sixth with two outs but failed to score.
The Lions got on the board in the seventh. With one out and two on, Yuta Watanabe replaced Gunkel and surrendered Takumi Kuriyama’s RBI pinch-hit single.
Carp 6, Fighters 3: At Hiroshima Citizens Stadium, Hiroshima came from a run down in a two-hit six-run fifth inning in which they drew four walks and one batter who was hit by a pitch.
Hiromi Ito (5-4) allowed two runs on three walks and four hits in four-plus innings, and the bullpen did little to right the ship.
Buffaloes 3, BayStars 1: At Yokohama Stadium, Sachiya Yamasaki (2-4) allowed a run on four hits and no walks while striking out nine over seven innings. Haruhiro Hamaguchi (2-1) allowed two runs over five-plus innings but the damage could have been much worse without some help from reliever Shingo Hirata.
Hirata defused a no-out bases-loaded sixth-inning time bomb, preventing Orix from adding to Yutaro Sugimoto’s tie-breaking RBI double.
Yoshihisa Hirano earned his 15th save and became the seventh pitcher with 200 in Japan. At 38 years, two months, he supplanted Dennis Sarfate as the oldest player to save his 200th. Sarfate was 36 years, two months when he reached the milestone.
Friday’s starting pitchers
Giants vs Marines: Tokyo Dome 6 pm, 5 am EDT
Shosei Togo (5-3, 3.21) vs Roki Sasaki (5-0, 1.33)
Swallows vs Lions: Jingu Stadium 6 pm, 5 am EDT
Yasuhiro Ogawa (2-3, 2.72) vs Kona Takahashi (4-4, 2.14)
BayStars vs Eagles: Yokohama Stadium 6 pm, 5 am EDT
Shinichi Onuki (3-2, 2.66) vs Ryota Takinaka (1-4, 3.66)
Dragons vs Hawks: Nagoya Dome 6 pm, 5 am EDT
Yudai Ono (3-4, 3.05) vs Kodai Senga (3-2, 1.74)
Tigers vs Fighters: Koshien Stadium 6 pm, 5 am EDT
Aaron Wilkerson (4-2, 1.45) vs Naoyuki Uwasawa (4-4, 2.81)
Carp vs Buffaloes: Hiroshima Citizen’s Stadium 6 pm, 5 am EDT
Daichi Osera (5-2, 3.38) vs Daiki Tajima (1-3, 2.88)
Active roster moves 6/2/2022
Deactivated players can be re-activated from 6/12
Central League
Activated
| Swallows | OF | 4 | Kazuya Maruyama |
| Giants | C | 67 | Shinnosuke Yamase |
| Dragons | P | 53 | Kento Marc Ishida |
Dectivated
| Swallows | OF | 0 | Hidetaka Namiki |
| Giants | C | 24 | Takumi Ohshiro |
| Dragons | P | 67 | Kotaro Ueda |
| BayStars | P | 42 | Fernando Romero |
