It’s Wednesday and, I’m here for pitcher Junya Nishi swinging the bat, for Leonys Martin sayonara home runs and for Chusei Mannami to turn up the power. I swear, if you can’t like delightful players like Junya Nishi and Chusei Mannami, you seriously can’t enjoy baseball.
We also had some former Dragons throwing cold water on the idea that Akira Neo, who has failed to hit a lick in 3-1/2 pro seasons, should pitch and play shortstop.
OK. Let’s get to it.
Marines 1, Eagles 0, 10 innings: At Chiba Marine Stadium, Hideaki Wakui returned to his second pro team and held them scoreless but was knocked out after taking a hard one-hopper off his right thigh and catching it between his legs before getting the leadoff batter in the fourth.
Kazuya Ojima threw seven scoreless innings for the Marines, followed by one each from Tayron Guerrero, Naoya Masuda and Daiki Tojo (1-1). Tomohito Sakai (0-1) lost it on the third pitch in the 10th, when Martin blasted a moonshot that just stayed fair off a 1-1 pitch down the pipe.
Fighters 11, Buffaloes 4: At Kobe Green Stadium, Chusei Mannami opened the scoring with a two-run fourth-inning home run off Jacob Waguespack (0-3), and put the finishing touches on it with a three-run seventh-inning homer, his seventh. Arismendy Alcántara also hit his seventh for the Fighters.
Hawks 3, Lions 2: At Naha, Masaki Mimori singled twice and scored twice for SoftBank, Yurisbel Gracial singled twice, tripled and drove in a run, and Yuki Yanagita broke a 2-2 seventh-inning tie when he singled in Mimori. Livan Moinelo, the Hawks’ sixth pitcher, worked around a leadoff walk to record his sixth save.
Tigers 8, Swallows 1: At Jingu Stadium, Junya Nishi (2-0), Japan’s DH at the 2019 Under-18 World Cup, slugged his first pro home run, a two-run shot in the second, and struck out seven while allowing six hits and walking none in a 115-pitch complete game, also his first.
Yakult lefty Keiji Takahashi (3-1) allowed six runs, four earned, in three innings. He gave up Jefry Marte‘s first-inning solo homer, Marte’s first, and Yusuke Oyama’s three-run homer in the third, Oyama’s sixth. Teruaki Sato hit his 10th for the Tigers and Tetsuto Yamada his eighth for the Swallows.
Giants 4, Carp 2: At Tokyo Dome, Gregory Polanco opened the scoring with a second-inning leadoff homer, his eighth, and Adam Walker did the rest of the damage with his eighth, a three-run shot in the fifth. Hiroshima stranded 12 runners. Kaito Kozono singled in one in the sixth and Ryan McBroom, who reached three times, another in the seventh.
McBroom has reached base in 26 straight games.
Giants rookie Taisei Ota recorded his 15th save.
BayStars 7, Dragons 6: At Nagoya Dome, Neftali Soto and Shugo Maki delivered the offense as DeNA held off Chunichi. Soto drove in the game’s first run with a third-inning RBI single and scored on Maki’s three-run home run, his 10th. Soto’s RBI double made it 5-0 in the fourth. He singled to lead off the visitors’ two-run seventh and scored the go-ahead run. Fernando Romero allowed five runs in five-plus innings for DeNA but did not figure in the decision.
Dayan Viciedo doubled twice, singled, scored twice and drove in a run for the Dragons, who tied it in a three-run sixth. Toshiki Abe doubled in a run in the sixth and homered in the eighth off Edwin Escobar, but Yasuaki Yamasaki worked a 1-2-3 ninth for his fifth save.
Former Dragons want Neo to go one-way
ToSpoWeb published comments from former Dragons shortstop Hirokazu Ibata, former closer Hitoki Iwase, and former ace Kenshin Kawakami about Chunichi experimenting with shortstop Akira Neo as a two-way player.
Kawakami was the only one of the three who was remotely positive.
“I’d love to see it,” he said, “but it’s extremely difficult in reality.”
Ibata and Iwase both said they would like the physically talented youngster to pick a lane and be a success at one or the other first, advice that might have derailed Shohei Ohtani’s career after his 2014 rookie season in which posted a terrible ERA and barely hit his weight.
“What I really want to see is for him to become a star,” Ibata said. “First he should work on mastering being a shortstop.”
Iwase, who probably has the best perspective of any of them, having been a two-way player in university, said it didn’t matter to him whether Neo pitched or played a position, but he should focus on one. Whatever he does, he has to get results.”
Thursday’s starting pitchers
Marines vs Eagles: Chiba Marine Stadium 6 pm, 5 am EDT
Tokito Kawamura (2-0, 3.60) vs Takayuki Kishi (3-1, 3.29)
Giants vs Carp: Tokyo Dome 6 pm, 5 am EDT
Tomoyuki Sugano (4-3, 3.43) vs Allen Kuri (2-1, 2.22)
Swallows vs Tigers: Jingu Stadium 6 pm, 5 am EDT
Yasuhiro Ogawa (1-3, 3.34) vs Joe Gunkel (1-3, 3.81)
Active roster moves 5/18/2022
Deactivated players can be re-activated from 5/28
Central League
Activated
| Tigers | C | 57 | Kenya Nagasaka |
| Dragons | P | 38 | Takahiro Matsuba |
Dectivated
| Tigers | C | 2 | Ryutaro Umeno |
Pacific League
Activated
| Eagles | P | 16 | Hideaki Wakui |
| Eagles | P | 56 | Sora Suzuki |
| Fighters | P | 13 | Tsubasa Nabatame |
Dectivated
| Eagles | P | 71 | Kazuki Yoshikawa |
Thursday’s starting pitchers
Marines vs Eagles: Chiba Marine Stadium 6 pm, 5 am EDT
Tokito Kawamura (2-0, 3.60) vs Takayuki Kishi (3-1, 3.29)
Giants vs Carp: Tokyo Dome 6 pm, 5 am EDT
Tomoyuki Sugano (4-3, 3.43) vs Allen Kuri (2-1, 2.22)
Swallows vs Tigers: Jingu Stadium 6 pm, 5 am EDT
Yasuhiro Ogawa (1-3, 3.34) vs Joe Gunkel (1-3, 3.81)
Active roster moves 5/18/2022
Deactivated players can be re-activated from 5/28
Central League
Activated
| Tigers | C | 57 | Kenya Nagasaka |
| Dragons | P | 38 | Takahiro Matsuba |
Dectivated
| Tigers | C | 2 | Ryutaro Umeno |
Pacific League
Activated
| Eagles | P | 16 | Hideaki Wakui |
| Eagles | P | 56 | Sora Suzuki |
| Fighters | P | 13 | Tsubasa Nabatame |
Dectivated
| Eagles | P | 71 | Kazuki Yoshikawa |
