Nippon Pro Baseball handed out its monthly “MVP” awards Friday, which a colleague noted is odds since none of the awards is actually called Most Valuable Player, and there was one kind of surprise among the four winners.

This spring rainy season, we’re expecting rain for another four straight days in the Kanto region, wiped out the Tigers’ game in Yokohama and the Swallows’ game in Hiroshima, leaving four indoor games, including Sasaki’s third start this season against the Orix Buffaloes, and one where Sho Nakata, with 266 major league home runs under his belt, sacrificed for the first time in his 15-year career.

Shall we get going?

The most valuables

Instead of “Most Valuable Player” awards, each league hands out one Most Valuable Pitcher and one Most Valuable Hitter award. As we discussed on the last Japan Baseball Weekly Podcast, Roki Sasaki was an easy choice for the PL pitcher’s award. We talked about the decision for the PL’s top hitter between Nippon Ham Fighters’ Go Matsumoto and his empty .418 average through April 30 and Rakuten Eagles leadoff dynamo and Nippon Ham discard, Haruki Nishikawa.

In the CL, the awards went to Hiroshima Carp ace Daichi Osera and Yomiuri Giants cleanup hitter Kazuma Okamoto. Both of us picked Okamoto with rookie Giants closer Taisei Ota to get the pitcher’s award.

Osera went 4-1 with the CL’s third-best ERA, 2.25, beating out Yomiuri’s C.C. Mercedes, who went 4-0 with less run support and a 2.10 ERA but fell one inning shy of qualifying for the ERA title, so he was out. Relievers generally win when no starter wins three or four games with an ERA under 3.00, so that mean Ota would have to have been near perfect.

John liked Mercedes for the award, although I overlooked him as the selectors did, most likely because he fell one inning short. But if you are going to pick a starting pitcher over Ota, it does seem silly to go with Osera instead of Mercedes, if one is being honest and serious.

Ota, by the way, went 1-0 with 11 saves over 13 innings in 13 games with a 17 strikeouts and a 2.08 ERA. As you can see below, the ERA probably torpedoed his chances. For comparison, here are the last four monthly pitching awards to go to relievers:

• In 2021, Robert Suarez was 0-0 with nine saves over 12 innings in 12 games with 10 strikeouts and a 0.00 ERA.
• In 2019, Alan Busenitz was 1-0 with 11 holds over 13 innings in 14 games with nine strikeouts and a 0.00 ERA.
• In 2017, Dennis Sarfate was 1-1 with 11 saves over 12-1/3 innings in 13 games with 20 strikeouts and 1.46 ERA.
• In 2016, Yuki Matsui was 0-0 with nine saves over 13 innings in 11 games with 17 strikeouts and a 0.69 ERA.
• Also in 2016, Dennis Sarfate was 0-1 with 12 saves over 16 innings in 16 games with 16 strikeouts and a 1.69 ERA

Friday’s games

Marines 4, Buffaloes 1: At Osaka Dome, Orix’s hitters proved they can hit Roki Sasaki when they’re looking for either a fastball or a splitter and the right-hander misses. He missed quite a lot and surrendered a run on seven hits, while striking out seven over seven innings.

One web gem from third baseman Hisanori Yasuda and a pair from shortstop Adeiny Hechavarria helped Sasaki limit the damage, while leadoff man Akito Takabe reached base four times and manufactured three runs.

Lefty Daiki Tajima () allowed two runs on four walks and four hits over seven innings.

Takabe walked twice, singled twice, stole three bases and scored three runs. He singled to open the first, stole second and scored the first run on a Brandon Laird sac fly.

He walked to open the third, stole second and scored on a Shogo Nakamura single. Takabe walked to lead off the eighth, stole second and advanced on a grounder before scoring on a Toshiya Sato squeeze. Laird capped the inning with his fourth home run.

“They really have a spectacular lineup, so I was happy to hold them to a run,” Sasaki said of Japan’s worst offense, playing without its best hitter, Masataka Yoshida.

Sasaki has so far shown himself to be humble and unpresuming, and the fact that they hit him pretty well on Friday could make this a sincere comment.

Fighters 1, Hawks 0: At Sapporo Dome, Hiromi Ito (4-3) threw a three-hitter to win a complete-game pitchers’ duel with Kodai Senga (3-1), who struck out 14 over eight innings.

The Fighters cashed in their only scoring opportunity in the fourth, when Kazunari Ishii opened with a single and was balked to second. Chusei Mannami brought him home by bouncing a ball through the infield with two outs.

Senga allowed four singles and a walk, while Ito struck out six and walked two.

Lions 4, Eagles 2: At Seibu Dome, Hiroaki Shimauchi‘s two-run, sixth-inning homer, his third, brought Rakuten from a run down against Kona Takahashi (4-2) only for the Lions to take the lead in the sixth.

Shuta Tonosaki singled in the tying run but was caught stealing before Takeya Nakamura‘s solo homer, his third, put Seibu in front against Ryota Takinaka (1-2) as Rakuten’s only losing streak of the season reached three games.

Giants 5, Dragons 2: At Tokyo Dome, Yoshihiro Maru brought Yudai Ono back to earth after his gem from week before by homering to lead off the first with his eighth home run. Gregory Polanco, who had four hits for the Giants, singled and scored in the fourth to make it 2-1.

Dayan Viciedo tied it in the sixth with his third homer, before Polanco singled in Maru with the go-ahead run in the seventh. Sho Nakata, who sacrificed for the first time in his 15-year career in the Giants’ fourth, hit a two-run homer in the eighth, his third, to complete the scoring.

The response to Nakata’s bunt on the TV broadcast indicated how much times have changed. The NTV announcer was practically wetting himself, seeing the bunt as a sign of manager Tatsunori Hara’s tactical brilliance, while the analyst said, “I’ll tell you what, if I’m the other team and they want to use a cleanup hitter to sacrifice, I’d be more than happy with that.”

We’ll see how that plays tomorrow when the curmudgeon corps sinks its teeth into it.

I can guarantee you that 30 years ago, everyone in the broadcast booth would be over the moon with this proof of the excellence of Japanese small ball.

Ono allowed two runs over six innings and didn’t figure in the decision, while Shosei Togo (5-2) went seven for the Giants to earn the win. Nobutaka Imamura produced a 1-2-3 inning for the second straight night, and rookie Taisei Ota collected his 14th save.

Giants-Dragons highlights

Starting pitchers

Fighters vs Hawks: Sapporo Dome 2 pm, 1 am EDT

Naoyuki Uwasawa (1-4, 4.50) vs Tomohisa Ozeki (3-2, 2.16)

Lions vs Eagles: Seibu Dome 2 pm, 1 am EDT

Shunsuke Sato (2-3, 3.24) vs Takahisa Hayakawa (3-1, 1.69)

Buffaloes vs Marines: Osaka Dome 2 pm, 1 am EDT

Yoshinobu Yamamoto (3-2, 2.34) vs Shoma Sato (0-0, 0.00)

Giants vs Dragons: Tokyo Dome 2 pm, 1 am EDT

Matt Shoemaker (1-2, 2.64) vs Hiroto Takahashi (2-2, 3.68)

BayStars vs Tigers: Yokohama Stadium 2 pm, 1 am EDT

Taiga Kamichatani (2-2, 2.04) vs Koyo Aoyagi (3-1, 0.76)

Carp vs Swallows: Hiroshima Citizen’s Stadium 2 pm, 1 am EDT

Masato Morishita (3-1, 2.94) vs Juri Hara (3-2, 3.86)

Active roster moves 5/13/2022

Deactivated players can be re-activated from 5/23

Central League

Dectivated

Pacific League

Activated

Dectivated