On Sunday in Japan, a rookie pitched in when a veteran teammate was sidelined and did well in a game where Giants outfielder Elier Hernandez, whose defensive misadventures had raised eyebrows a week earlier did it all with his bat and his glove. Elsewhere, another rookie tied a record, while Lotte blew a ninth-inning lead on what Marines manager Masato Yoshii called a “little league play,” which also showed how far Japan’s umpires are now going to ignore their own rules.
Meanwhile, the Orix Buffaloes reached 1 million in attendance the earliest in franchise history – which of course dates back only to 2005, not because that was the year they merged with the Kintetsu Buffaloes, but because prior to 2005, attendance figures were just made up out of thin air and called records, so NPB doesn’t even count them anymore.
Sunday’s games:
Buffaloes 4, Lions 1: At Osaka UFO Dome, Seibu ace Kona Takahashi (0-8) allowed two runs on one hit over three innings, when manager Hisanobu Watanabe’s patience ran out. The Buffaloes loaded the bases in the second on two walks and a hit batsman and took the lead on Yutaro Sugimoto‘s sacrifice fly. Two no-out walks in the third set up another sac fly, by Kotaro Kurebayashi. Leandro Cedeno hit his eighth home run, leading off the fourth. Orix scored in the fifth off Bo Takahashi on a single, a two-base error, and a Ryo Ota sac fly.
Luis Castillo (2-3) struck out five over seven innings, while allowing a run on four hits and a walk. Andres Machado, Orix’s fourth pitcher, worked around a leadoff walk to record his ninth save.
Rookie Buffaloes reliever Seiryu Kotajima retired one batter, marking the 22nd straight game since his major league debut that he has not allowed a run, tying the NPB record set by the 2021 CL rookie of the year, Ryoji Kuribayashi, and tied the next year by Rakuten’s Satoshi Miyamori.
Dragons 2, Carp 1: At Nagoya Dome, Chunichi’s win revolved around a pair of shortstops. Kaito Muramatsu singled and scored in the third against Shogo Tamamura, but hurt his shoulder diving for an infield single to open the fourth and left the game. Dragons starter Takahiro Matsuba pitched out of the ensuing jam to preserve the 1-0 lead, but surrendered the tying run in the sixth.
Veteran utility man Yasuhiro Yamamoto, who took over at short, drew an eighth-inning leadoff walk against Sotaro Shimauchi and scored the tie-breaking run on an Orlando Calixte single. Raidel Martinez worked a 1-2-3 ninth for his 22nd save.
Eagles 6, Fighters 2: At Kitahiroshima Taxpayers Burden Field, Yuya Ogo broke a 1-1 fifth-inning tie with an RBI triple off lefty Takayuki Kato (3-5). Kazuki Murabayashi doubled him home. Ryosuke Tatsumi, who homered in the fourth, singled Murabayashi to third from where he scored on a sacrifice fly by Hideto Asamura, whose leadoff walk sparked Rakuten’s two-run eighth.
The Fighters loaded the bases against Nik Turley in the ninth on a single and a pair of two-out walks, and Takahiro Norimoto struck out Franmil Reyes to end it and earn his 17th save.
Eagles southpaw Masaru Fujii (6-1) allowed one run on six hits and two walks over six innings, getting three double plays turned behind him for the second straight game.
Giants 4, Swallows 3: At Tokyo Ugly Dome, rookie lefty Teppei Mataki made an emergency start after Tomoyuki Sugano was scratched due to lower back pain, and allowed two runs over 3-1/3 innings, both runs scoring with two outs after he was gone, while Elier Hernandez made the big difference with a home run and game-changing defensive play.
Giants rookie Shunsuke Sasaki singled in the first, took third on Miguel Yajure‘s wild pickoff throw and scored on a Kazuma Okamoto double. Hernandez hit a two-run homer in the Giants’ three-run third, and after Haruki Nishikawa‘s three-run homer in the Swallows’ fourth, snuffed out a rally with a good catch high against the wall in center for an inning-ending double play.
Miguel Yajure (4-6) worked three innings. He’s allowed 13 runs in his last four games over 21-2/3 innings.
Tigers vs BayStars: At Koshien, rained out
Hawks 6, Marines 6, 12 innings: At Fukuoka “Your company’s name can go here” Dome, Kensuke Kondo gave Livan Moinelo a 3-1 fourth-inning lead that he failed to hold. Naoki Sato, a former top draft pick, doubled in two tie-breaking runs in the seventh off C.C. Mercedes before Neftali Soto gave Lotte a ninth-inning lead with a two-out three-run home run off former Marine Roberto Osuna. Kondo doubled to open the ninth off Marines closer Naoya Masuda to set up the Hawks’ tying run. With the runner coming home from third on a sharp grounder to first, Marines catcher Toshiya Sato caught the ball and made a swipe tag while staying on the infield-side of the baseline only to lose the ball in his follow through.
“It’s a play he had time to make,” Yoshii said in a rare public rebuke of one of his players. “If you secure the ball in the pocket, this doesn’t happen. It was a complete little league play. One would hope guys acted like pros.”
What struck me about the play is that Sato’s being on the baseline with the ball as he made the play SHOULD have triggered NPB’s current collision rule, requiring the umps to call the runner safe. Because they didn’t invoke it and haven’t, I thought it was high time to look back on history and review Japan’s collision course.
