The other shoe dropped in the Giants’ managing drama Wednesday as the Central League’s regular season ground to a halt, the Lotte Marines found themselves in Osaka trying to cement their playoff position as the Pacific League season ticks down, and it’s official, Samurai Japan has a new manager on a short leash.
Wednesday’s games
Giants 1, Deniers 0: At Tokyo Ugly Dome, Iori Yamasaki (10-5) threw a 111-pitch two-hitter to outduel Katsuki Azuma (16-3), who allowed a run on eight hits to take the complete-game loss. The victory was Tatsunori Hara’s franchise-record 1,291st, and consigned DeNA to opening its postseason in the climax series
Before the game, Hara revealed he would not continue managing the Giants next year, the final year of what was ostensibly a three-year contract, but would step down after the game, having made up his mind to get out of Dodge after he became the first manager to steer the club to back-to-back second-division finishes.
In the postgame ceremony, in the most Hara-like way, the 65-year-old skipper announced that HE himself had decided to entrust the team to his head coach, and his former star catcher, Shinnosuke Abe. This came two years ago after Hara outmaneuvered the front office into offering him a three-year contract when they wanted to fire his ass.
Swallows 5, Tigers 4: At Jingu Stadium, Tetsuto Yamada ended his awful season on a bright note. He hit his 14th home run, a game-tying fifth-inning RBI single, and won it with a sacrifice fly as Yakult walked off the Hanshin Tigers, and escaped last place on the final day of the regular season after winning back-to-back pennants in 2021 and 2022.
Yusuke Oyama hit a two-run homer in the first, his 19th, and Teruaki Sato followed with his 24th off Keiji Takahashi. Shota Morishita doubled and scored in the sixth on a Sato sac fly to make it 4-3 in the sixth.
Marines 6, Buffaloes 3: At Osaka UFO Dome, Hiroya Miyagi allowed a run over five innings, and Lotte came from behind against the Orix bullpen in a three-run seventh. After two outs and two walks, Katsuya Kakunaka‘s two-run pinch-hit double tied it, and Yudai Fujioka‘s RBI double, his third hit of the game, put the Marines in front for good.
The Marines moved a full game ahead of the fourth-place Rakuten Eagles and one game back of the second-place SoftBank Hawks. Lotte and Rakuten each have three games remaining, while the Hawks have two.
Ibata Japan’s manager–for now
Hirokazu Ibata, who was the cornerstone of the Chunichi Dragons defense for a decade while being a consistent on-base dynamo that earned him five CL Best Nine Awards and seven Golden Gloves at shortstop, was named Samurai Japan manager on Wednesday, the second time since NPB Enterprises Inc. took over the team after the 2013 WBC that they named a skipper who has never managed professionals before.
In 2013, after Japan failed to reach the WBC final for the first time, the organization named Sadaharu Oh’s choice, newly retired Hawks star Hiroki Kokubo to the top job without a shred of coaching or managing experience to his name. Ibata has coached, with the Giants and the national team and has managed a little, the national under-12 team for the past two years.
Instead of naming him to manage through the next WBC, he has only signed on to manage through November 2024’s Premier 12.
“I’m undeserving of this huge job, but I’ll pour everything I have into it and serve with all my strength to honor my debt to Japanese baseball,” Ibata told a press conference.
