On Wednesday in Japan, Rakuten and Orix both came from behind as the Pacific League took four of six interleague games on the road and improved to 26-19-2. Meanwhile, a day after his team brutalized the Lotte Marines, Yomiuri manager Shinnosuke Abe’s commitment to Japan’s one-run dogma left his team on the short end.
In other news, the Seibu Lions deactivated one of their big bats, second baseman Shuta Tonosaki with a tight left hamstring, and I do a big of a Tuesday rewind.
I generally don’t blog on days when I am not required to work my other job, and so I skipped games to focus on some other tasks. But late last night a reader texted me to see if I’d caught the end of the Swallows walk-off win over the Lions.
Also on Tuesday, Tigers manager Akinobu Okada showed once more that his patience has its limits. After allowing runs in three consecutive appearances, Javy Guerra, who has been sharing the Tigers’ closer duties with lefty Suguru Iwazaki, was deactivated, along with first baseman Yusuke Oyama. An on-base machine with power, Oyama’s OBP Tuesday was .282, his slugging average an abysmal .272.
Wednesday’s games:
Marines 4, Giants 3: At Tokyo Ugly Dome, Lotte’s Atsuki Taneichi (4-3) struck out nine over eight scoreless innings, and Yomiuri manager Abe gave away a critical ninth-inning insurance run that cost him when the Giants’ ninth-inning rally fell a run short.
The Marines responded to the 18-2 butt-kicking they received Tuesday by scoring first. Fourth-inning ingles by Gregory Polanco and Akito Takabe set up Neftali Soto‘s sixth home run, off Kenshin Hotta (3-2). Takabe singled to open the Marines’ ninth, stole second and scored an insurance run on a Toshiya Sato “double” – a soft liner over the head of the Giants’ left fielder who was pulled in to prevent Takabe from scoring on a ground single.
The run came in handy when Lotte’s Rikuto Yokoyama surrendered two singles in the ninth. With two outs and a run in, pinch-hitter Takumi Oshiro singled off Naoya Masuda, who walked Yoshihiro Maru. Elier Hernandez singled off a beauty of a low splitter to make it a one-run game. Hernandez has so far been an absolute find but Masuda held on for his eighth save in what has been a difficult season for him.
The 29-year-old Hernandez, who has played in over 1,100 games in the MLB’s minor leagues, got called up to Japan’s majors after going 12-for-29 for the Eastern League Giants. He’s now 15-for-34 against PL pitching with two homers.
Carp 6, Fighters 0: At New Hiroshima Citizens Stadium, Hiromi Ito (4-1) struck out eight over seven innings, but allowed three runs, one earned, as he failed to become Nippon Ham’s first starting pitcher to begin a season 5-0 since Shohei Ohtani, while Masato Morishita (5-2) held the Fighters to five singles and no walks over eight innings to snap Hiroshima’s five-game losing streak.
Former Pacific League star Shogo Akiyama homered off Hiromi Ito’s first pitch in the first inning for Hiroshima. An Akiyama leadoff single sparked a two-run Carp sixth. Takayoshi Noma singled, Kaito Kozono bunted his way on with Akiyama scoring on a wild throw and Noma scoring on a sacrifice fly.
Hawks 5, Dragons 1: At Nagoya Dome, Tomohisa Ozeki (3-0) allowed four hits but no walks while striking out six over five innings as SoftBank ran its latest win streak to five games and improved to 6-2 in interleague.
A two-out walk from Shinnosuke Ogasawara (2-5) and singles by two of SoftBank’s lesser lights, rookie second baseman Ryuta Hirose and reserve catcher Takashi Umino made it 1-0 in the second. SoftBank made it 5-0 in the third on a two-run double by Kensuke Kondo, and back-to-back RBI singles from Tatsuru Yanagimachi and Hirose.
Dragons right-hander Sho Iwasaki made an emotional comeback in a scoreless eighth inning against his old team. The 34-year-old’s right elbow blew out on him in 2022 in his first game after joining Chunichi as a free agent from the Hawks.
Eagles 3, Tigers 2: At Koshien Stadium, playing for a tie on the road, the Eagles sacrificed with one out and the leadoff runner on in the ninth but still came out ahead with two outs when Yuya Ogo got under a high hanging 3-1 slider from Suguru Iwazaki (2-3) and lofted it just over the wall in right for his third home run and Rakuten’s first lead.
Rakuten’s former ace turned closer, Takahiro Norimoto, worked around a hit batsman and a walk to record his 13th save as Hanshin dropped to 1-6 in interleague, while the Eagles joined the Hawks at 6-2.
Hanshin scored in the third on a two-out Takumu Nakano single and an Ukyo Maegawa double off Seiryu Uchi. A leadoff error, a hit, a walk and a Shota Morishita single made it 2-0 in the fifth. The Eagles, who left the bases loaded in the seventh, got a run in the eighth. Ryosuke Tatsumi‘s third hit, a leadoff double, and two groundouts cut the Tigers’ lead to a run.
Buffaloes 2, BayStars 1: At Yokohama Stadium, DeNA’s Tatsuo Ebina hit a first-inning leadoff homer on Daiki Tajima‘s second pitch. The Buffaloes might have tied it in the second but for a good grab by shortstop Yamato Maeda and a superb stretch at first from Tyler Austin to retire the leadoff hitter ahead of Kenya Wakatsuki‘s double.
The Buffaloes took the lead against Andre Jackson (2-5) after two were gone in the fifth on a Yuma Mune single and Ryo Ota’s first home run to make a winner out of Tajima (3-2) after four relievers held DeNA at bay with Andres Machado recording his fourth save.
Swallows 7, Lions 2: At Jingu “Tokyo’s sacrifice to corporate greed and governmental malfeasance” Stadium, Yasuhiro Ogawa (2-2) held Seibu to two runs over 6-1/3 innings and Jose Osuna iced the game with a three-run home run.
Takumi Kuriyama doubled in Sosuke Genda to make it 1-0 against Yasuhiro Ogawa in the fourth. Yakult took the lead against Chihiro Sumida (3-5) in the sixth. Two walks and a stolen base put runners on the corners, and center fielder Junichiro Kishi just barely missed robbing Domingo Santana of a two-run two-out single off the screen. Sumida walked the next hitter, and Katsunori Hirai hung a 1-0 slider to Osuna, who made it 5-1 with his seventh home run.
Ogawa allowed a Kishi seventh-inning leadoff single and a double and was done. Naofumi Kizawa allowed one run to score but got out of the inning, and the Swallows’ bullpen survived four walks over 1-2/3 innings to seal their third straight win.
Lions’ Tonosaki out with tight hamstring
Shuta Tonosaki, who has been Seibu’s most consistent hitter this season, was deactivated with a tight left hamstring Wednesday. In the context of this year’s dismal offensive norms across Japan, the 31-year-old Tonosaki is having a quality season despite hitting .228 with a .319 OBP and a .322 slugging average.
Tuesday rewind
Before I even got to the end of the game in the highlights, I saw manager Shingo Takatsu‘s life-and-death shallow outfield take its toll, earn a payoff and get an example why it shouldn’t be done at all.
Seibu broke a 1-1 seventh-inning tie on a two-out routine fly to center that became Takumi Kuriyama‘s 400th career double. In the eighth inning, Yakult’s defense was able to get the second out and prevent the runner on second from scoring because the outfield at normal depth allowed Haruki Nishikawa to make a play on a deep fly. With two outs, with Yakult’s right fielder playing where some MLB infielders had been before the shift was banned, Takatsu at last got the ground ball single and the out at the plate that he uses to excuse all the other poor outfield gambles he loves.
Two walks from starter Tatsuya Imai set up Tetsuto Yamada‘s 300th career double that tied it in the ninth, and Yakult walked off after a single, a walk and a throwing error on a bunt to third base. A perfect example of a game between the teams with the two worst records in NPB.
