On Saturday, we got a glimpse of Nippon Ham’s past and future via the medium of interleague play, as the Central League continued to enjoy a banner weekend at the Pacific League parks, not only winning more games but outscoring their opponents, which is not what we’re used to.

For me, the day’s highlight was a David vs Goliath moment, where one of Japan’s best pitchers took on a guy with over 2,400 minor league plate appearances, while two guys who came up as developmental guys with SoftBank had a hell of a game.

Saturday’s interleague games

Dragons 4, Buffaloes 1: At Osaka Dome, Taiki Mitsumata, the Orix Buffaloes’ second pick in the 2010 draft, traded to Chunichi in July 2014, came up against Buffaloes ace Yoshinobu Yamamoto with two on and two out in the eighth inning of a 1-1 game.

Mitsumata got ahead in the count 3-1 when Yamamoto (5-3), who struggled to locate his forkball, gave up on it and went with the fastball.

“Before I went to the plate, the manager told me, he’s going to go with forkballs and fastballs, you choose which one you want to look for” Mitsumata said.

Mitsumata, who said he was looking fastball, fouled two off, before Yamamoto changed speeds with a curve, that he also got the bat on.

“That was a miracle,” he said.

Mitsumata, a career .196 hitter, fouled off one more fastball before rolling Yamamoto’s ninth pitch of the at-bat and his 116th of the game between third and short for the RBI single.

“Yamamoto is one of Japan’s elite pitchers,” Mitsumata said. “My only thought was to grind and hang in there.”

Of course, at the start of the hero interview, he gave the obligatory message of team solidarity,” My goal was to set the table for the hitters coming up behind me,” which is what virtually every hitter says in every hero interview.

The fact that Mitsumata is batting second is nothing unusual in Japan but does suggest that either the Dragons organization or manager Kazuyoshi Tatsunami don’t understand what an optimal lineup looks like or they don’t care.

The Dragons were lucky to even be in the game against Yamamoto, but the team I used to call the PL’s version of Chunichi, stranded eight runners though the first seven innings. The Dragons had three runners through seven innings, and scored when No. 9 hitter Yuki Okabayashi tripled and scored on a Yohei Oshima single in the third.

The Buffaloes tied it in the seventh before a one-out infield single, and a walk to Okabayashi set the table. Oshima lined out to bring up Mitsumata.

Yariel Rodriguez (2-1) got the final two outs of the seventh to get the win, and after the Dragons scored twice in the ninth against Jesse Biddle, Raidel Martinez secured his 12th save.

Giants 8, Fighters 4: At Sapporo Dome, Kotaro Kiyomiya homered twice, his fifth and sixth of the season, and Sho Nakata helped ice it in the ninth with his fifth home run, a two-run shot against his former team.

Trailing 1-0 in the fifth, rookie Riku Masuda struck out but reached on a wild pitch from Toshihiro Sugiura (2-4). A Takuumi Oshiro single and a groundout tied it. A Seiya Matsubara RBI single, a Naoki Yoshikawa triple, a Kazuma Okamoto walk the second of Adam Walker‘s three doubles made it 4-1.

Matt Shoemaker (2-3) allowed three runs over six innings and left with a 5-3 lead after Nakata singled in a run in the top of the seventh as a pinch-hitter.

Swallows 11, Eagles 4: At Miyagi Stadium, Yakult opened the game with back-to-back singles before Takahisa Hayakawa (3-3) retired the next 11 batters.

Daichi Suzuki singled in Ryosuke Tatsumi in the second off starter Hirotoshi Takahashi, but the right-hander left soon after being hit on the foot by a batted ball. José Marmolejos chased him a with an RBI single that made it 3-0 Eagles.

Rookie Naofumi Kizawa (3-1) got out of the jam, and the Swallows put up seven runs in the fifth. Jose Osuna tied it with a three-run home run, his fourth. Kotaro Yamasaki singled in one more before Tetsuto Yamada hit his ninth home run with two on.

Rookie shortstop Hideki Nagaoka iced it with a three-run eighth-inning double. The Eagles’ loss saw their PL lead to shrink to half a game over the Hawks.

Tigers 6, Marines 2: At Chiba Marine Stadium, Koyo Aoyagi (5-1) took a shutout into the ninth inning. He went to the mound with a three-run lead. Yusuke Oyama doubled in Koji Chikamoto off rookie Shoma Sato (0-2). A Teruaki Sato sac fly plated Takumu Nakano, and Kento Itohara doubled in Oyama.

Aoyagi struck out seven while allowing two unearned runs on eight hits and two walks over 8-2/3 innings.

Lions 10, BayStars 5: At Seibu Dome, Seibu knocked out Taiga Kamichatani (2-5) in the third inning. Brian O’Grady got the ball rolling in the second. With Takumi Kuriyama on base, he hit his fourth home run.

Wu Nien-ting opened the eight-run third with a single, scored twice in the inning and singled in a run.

Katsunori Hirai (3-3), ostensibly back in the bullpen this year after making 11 starts in 2021, allowed two runs over five innings for the win.

Hawks 11, Carp 1: At Fukuoka Dome, rookie substitute catcher Riku Watanabe, a 21-year-old developmental pick from the 2018 draft playing in his fourth game after tearing up the Western League, homered twice, singled and drove in five runs.

He teamed up with a 2019 developmental pick, rookie Tomohisa Ozeki (4-3), who allowed a run over seven innings.

Sunday’s starting pitchers

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

Haruka Nemoto (0-1, 1.93) vs Kai Yokogawa (-)

Eagles vs Swallows: Miyagi Stadium 1 pm, 12 midnight EDT

Takahiro Norimoto (2-2, 3.26) vs Masanori Ishikawa (2-2, 3.25)

Lions vs BayStars: Seibu Dome 1 pm, 12 midnight EDT

Dietrich Enns (3-2, 2.11) vs Masaya Kyoyama (-)

Marines vs Tigers: Chiba Marine Stadium 2 pm, 1 am EDT

Enny Romero (2-4, 3.00) vs Masashi Ito (1-1, 2.22)

Buffaloes vs Dragons: Osaka Dome 1 pm, 12 midnight EDT

Hiroya Miyagi (3-2, 4.21) vs Yuya Yanagi (4-2, 2.59)

Hawks vs Carp: Fukuoka Dome 1 pm, 12 midnight EDT

Tsuyoshi Wada (1-1, 2.08) vs Drew Anderson (2-0, 2.41)

Active roster moves 5/28/2022

Deactivated players can be re-activated from 6/7

Central League

Activated

Pacific League

Activated

Dectivated

Sunday’s starting pitchers

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

Haruka Nemoto (0-1, 1.93) vs Kai Yokogawa (-)

Eagles vs Swallows: Miyagi Stadium 1 pm, 12 midnight EDT

Takahiro Norimoto (2-2, 3.26) vs Masanori Ishikawa (2-2, 3.25)

Lions vs BayStars: Seibu Dome 1 pm, 12 midnight EDT

Dietrich Enns (3-2, 2.11) vs Masaya Kyoyama (-)

Marines vs Tigers: Chiba Marine Stadium 2 pm, 1 am EDT

Enny Romero (2-4, 3.00) vs Masashi Ito (1-1, 2.22)

Buffaloes vs Dragons: Osaka Dome 1 pm, 12 midnight EDT

Hiroya Miyagi (3-2, 4.21) vs Yuya Yanagi (4-2, 2.59)

Hawks vs Carp: Fukuoka Dome 1 pm, 12 midnight EDT

Tsuyoshi Wada (1-1, 2.08) vs Drew Anderson (2-0, 2.41)

Active roster moves 5/28/2022

Deactivated players can be re-activated from 6/7

Central League

Activated

Pacific League

Activated

Dectivated