On Sunday in Japan, we had a no-hitter near miss and two rookie pitchers starting and winning their big league debuts, while Fighters manager Tsuyoshi Shinjo uttered some words of wisdom after errors cost his team a game. And just in case you missed it, yesterday’s blog post included a rundown on the no-hitters that Japan doesn’t officially count.

Off the field, two position players were called up to make their major league debuts. Hiroshima activated Western League batting leader Keisuke Sato, Seibu brought up Koichi Okumura, who I write about after the game action.

The interleague scorecard now stands with the PL leading 37-32 with two ties, and all but one of the remaining 37 games to be played in the Pacific League’s home parks. The six PL teams are 10-8 this season at home, 17-15-2 on the road.

Starting Tuesday, the Dragons will be in Hokkaido, the Giants in Sendai, the Carp at Seibu, the BayStars in Chiba, the Tigers at Orix and the Swallows in Fukuoka. From Friday, the Giants will be in Hokkaido, the Carp in Sendai, the BayStars at Seibu, the Swallows in Osaka and the Tigers in Fukuoka. Unless there are more rainouts, the final game will be the Fighters at Koshien on either Monday or Tuesday with league play resuming Friday.

Sunday’s games:

Swallows 1, Fighters 0: At Jingu “Tokyo’s sacrifice to corporate greed and governmental malfeasance” Stadium, Yakult’s Miguel Yajure scattered a walk, a hit batsman and six singles over seven innings as Nippon Ham wasted an excellent start from lefty Takayuki Kato when the Swallows scraped out an eighth-inning run.

Closer Seigi Tanaka popped up Jose Osuna, who reached second when shortstop on an inning-opening two-base error when shortstop Tatsuki Mizuno failed to make the catch in the wind. A sacrifice bunt put the runner on third for former Fighter Haruki Nishikawa‘s sacrifice fly. Naofumi Kizawa and Kazuto Taguchi each supplied a scoreless inning with Taguchi getting his third straight.

Fighters manager Tsuyoshi Shinjo, whose comments all season have been matter of fact to a degree unmatched in his pro career, said of the 23-year-old Mizuno’s miss-play, “In my pro baseball career, I’ve never seen a player whose career was ended by an error. Now it’s just a matter of how he moves past it. And he did have a hit in the ninth inning.”

Asked about dynamic outfielder Chusei Mannami‘s two base-running mistakes, Shinjo said, “Mistakes come with the territory, but if we don’t make fewer of those, we won’t become a strong team.”

BayStars 8, Hawks 5: At Yokohama Stadium, rookie 22-year-old DeNA right-hander Yutaro Ishida (1-0), the BayStars’ fifth-round draft pick last autumn, pitched out of a first-inning jam to allow one run over five innings, while 43-year-old lefty Tsuyoshi Wada (2-1) dug the Hawks a hole they couldn’t get out of as DeNA snapped a four-game losing streak.

Both starting pitchers worked with the bases loaded in the first inning. Ishida got two outs before trouble loomed and avoided damage, while Wada surrendered two singles, a walk and a Shugo Maki grand slam before retiring a batter. Two more singles followed before Wada retired Ishida to end the inning.

Ishida had struck out 35 in 40 Eastern League innings while walking nine and allowing two home runs. He held the Hawks scoreless until Tatsuru Yanagimachi doubled in the fourth and scored via a wild pitch and a groundout.

The BayStars put this one on ice on Yoshitomo Tsutsugo’s three-run seventh-inning homer.

“Winning is impossible when you’re giving up a grand slam to the cleanup hitter and a three-run bomb to the No. 5 hitter,” Hawks manager Hiroki Kokubo said.

Buffaloes 4, Giants 1: At Tokyo Ugly Dome, 23-year-old Kazuma Sato (1-0), who joined Orix on a developmental contract out of high school and led the Western League in wins last season, made his major league debut with five scoreless innings as the Buffaloes won their fifth straight.

Ryoma Nishikawa continued to be a giant pain in the ass, plating a first-inning run for the third straight game with a double that scored Ryoto Kita off Tomoyuki Sugano (5-1) ahead of Kotaro Kurebayashi‘s sacrifice fly that scored Ryo Ota. Ota singled with one out in the third, and scored on a Nishikawa run-and-hit double.

I was telling a colleague yesterday about how lame the NTV announcers used to be in the visiting player hero interviews. The first one I remember after coming to Japan in 1984 was Dragons pitcher Ken Kadokura, whose first career win came at Tokyo Dome against the Giants. The announcer’s questions were like “How great is it for you to be even pitching here, at Tokyo Dome? Pitching against the great Giants, and beating them? Isn’t this the greatest moment of your life?”

NTV has toned it down a bit over the years, but on Sunday did ask Sato how it felt to make his big league debut against “great” Giants.

• You not only made your pro debut but did it at Tokyo Dome.

“I have been nervous since I learned two days ago that I would start. I’ve been watching games played here on TV since I was little, so I was really looking forward to it and just tried to pitch for all I was worth.”

• You faced this great Giants lineup…

“I just took it one pitch at a time, one batter at a time, trying to make each pitch count.”

• Before the game you were studying something.

“I was looking at the tendencies of the opposing batters, and took that information with me when I went to the mound.”

• How did you feel when you left the mound?

“For the most part I was relieved, but I was also thinking it would be really great if I could get the win.”

Dragons 3, Eagles 1: At Nagoya Dome, Chunichi’s Takahiro Matsuba (3-3) allowed a run over five innings, Orlando Calixte broke a 1-1 fourth-inning tie, and Raidel Martinez stranded two runners in scoring position in the ninth to record his 19th save as the Dragons came from behind to snap Rakuten’s five-game win streak.

Toshiki Abe‘s revenge tour continued for Rakuten. After singling in a run on Friday against Hideaki Wakui, whom the Dragons traded him to the Eagles for, Abe hit his first homer of the year in the second against Takahiro Matsuba. The Dragons tied it against veteran right-hander Takayuki Kishi (2-6) in the fourth on a Yutaro Itayama double, a Shingo Usami single and a Kaito Muramatsu sacrifice fly. Kishi challenged Calixte with a 1-1 pitch in the zone, and gave up a tie-breaking RBI double. Alex Dickerson walked with two outs in the fifth and scored after back-to-back singles by Itayama and Usami.

Carp 4, Marines 1: At New Hiroshima Citizens Stadium, Ryuhei Matsuyama‘s RBI pinch-hit double broke up a 1-1 pitchers’ duel in the eighth inning, after Lotte’s C.C. Mercedes allowed one run on two walks and six hits over six innings, and Hiroshima’s Makoto Aduwa went six without allowing a run.

Ryosuke Kikuchi squeezed in a run against Mercedes after one-out fifth-inning singles by Shogo Akiyama and Takayoshi Noma. Aduwa, going for his sixth win, allowed two hits and a. The Marines tied it in the seventh against the bullpen before Hiroshima scored three in the eighth off reliever Keisuke Sawada (2-1). Shogo Akiyama’s third single of the game plated two insurance runs to cap the rally before Ryoji Kuribayashi recorded his 17th save.

Tigers 3, Lions 0: At Koshien Stadium, Hiroto Saiki (7-1) flirted with a no-hitter until a tricky fly at the right-field foul pole off the bat of Kakeru Yamanobe hit the top of the low wall for a one-out eighth-inning triple.

Saiki left the mound briefly for treatment after the Tigers scored three runs in a long seventh-inning rally that a normal outfield alignment would have short circuited. With two outs and runners on second and third, the Lions outfield came in and center fielder Shohei Suzuki could only watch as Takumu Nakano‘s fly sailed over his head, ruining an impressive start from Lions right-hander Ryutaro Watanabe (0-1). Ukyo Maegawa‘s singled made it 3-0.

Suguru Iwazaki worked the ninth for his ninth save as Seibu lost its seventh straight.

Afterward, Seibu interim manager Hisanobu Watanabe said, “Lady luck wasn’t with us today.”

Are you trying to say it was Lady Luck that told you to bring in the outfield with two outs in the eighth inning?

Sato, Okumura get 1st call-ups

Two days after Hiroshima added 23-year-old left-handed-hitting second baseman Keisuke Sato to the 70-man roster, the Carp activated their second pick in last year’s developmental draft and started him at first base Sunday. Sato is currently batting .350, and so far just a singles hitter, but he has drawn 24 walks in 187 plate appearances for a .438 on-base-percentage.

The Lions brought up another developmental contract newbie, 24-year-old outfielder Koichi Okumura. They must know something we don’t see in his limited minor league numbers, since they put the guy hitting .217 in the Eastern League with six stolen bases in 18 games, into the leadoff spot.