We had a big retirement announcement, an unsurprisingly establishment view on the responsibility of management, and five games on Friday.
Kosuke Fukudome to call it quits
Former Chicago Cub, Cleveland Indian and Chicago White Sox outfielder Kosuke Fukudome, 45, announced Thursday that this will be the last of his 24 major league seasons, five of which were spent in MLB.
“Do as much as you can, because there will come a day when it ends, and you don’t want to regret what you might have done.”
-Kosuke Fukudome on his advice to young players
I haven’t been able to get through the entire hour-long presser but here are some of the tidbits:
The family
- —How did your family respond?
- “Nobody was crying their eyes out although there was a tear or two, but that’s how they roll. They all smiled and said, ‘Good job.’ After all, I was the one who put all the burden on them, so they were a little relieved I suppose.”
- “I’m going to be able to spend a lot more time with my kids, and they told me different things they want to do, so it feels like I’m going into the life of an ordinary dad.”
- —What do you want to do most with your family?
- “Me, nothing in particular (laughs). I’ll give it some thought going forward I suppose.”
Playing in MLB
- “I experienced good things and bad things as well, and was able to physically experience baseball played a different way. So I have to say, it was a good thing.”
- “There’ are differences, just like there’s a difference between Japan’s first teams and farm teams, and the (U.S.) minors and majors. There are things you can’t really understand just from hearing about them. Because of the qualitative gap between their majors and minors, I thanked my lucky stars I’d been brought up in Japan’s system.”
- “So many players taught me in so many different ways, that it was a huge learning experience for me.”
- “Hardships? I guess walking around in cities and not being able to speak a word to anyone. Still, it was fun.”
What I meant to say
On Wednesday, Orix manager Satoshi Nakajima said leadoff hitter Shuhei Fukuda’s costly base-running mistake was the coaching staff’s fault, kind of in keeping with how the new wave of NPB managers have been handling these things.
On Thursday, Orix apparently took a different stance and decided that the blame lie with Fukuda, who was banished to the minors. In a lot of organizations, when the boss tells everyone it’s his responsibility, you can bet that it’s just bullshit, and that he won’t take a hit for someone else’s goof.
Of course, it could have been a decision made by the front office, but either way, it’s the kind of old-school Orix stuff we haven’t seen much of since Nakajima took over in 2020.
OK, so let’s get to the games.
Giants 6, BayStars 5: At Tokyo Dome, Yomiuri came from four runs down to beat second-place DeNA.
DeNA center fielder Masayuki Kuwahara single-handedly ruined the Giants’ third inning with a pair of superb catches, and former Giants Taishi Ota doubled and opened the scoring in the fourth on Keita Sano RBI single.
Hikaru Ito’s three-run double gave DeNA starter Fernando Romero a healthy 4-0 lead, but Takumi Oshiro blasted a three-run homer in the bottom of the fourth. Giants reliever Yohei Kagiya (2-0) pitched out of two-out two-on pickle in the fifth, and Sho Nakata hit a three-run homer off reliever Shingo Hirata (4-3).
DeNA came back for a run in the eighth, but rookie closer Taisei Ota put a stop to the nonsense, striking out two of the four batters he faced in the ninth for his 32nd save.
Dragons 2, Carp 0: At Nagoya Dome, Chunichi rookie Kotaro Ueda (1-4) allowed two hits and three walks over six scoreless innings, and the Dragons scored off Masato Morishita (10-7) in the fourth. Ariel Martinez singled, Toshiki Abe doubled him to third and rookie Ryuku Ueda squeezed in the run.
Morishita struck out eight while allowing a run on seven hits and no walks over seven innings.
Raidel Martinez stranded two runners in the ninth to record his 32nd save as Chunichi salvaged the final game of the series.
Eagles 7, Hawks 3: At Fukuoka Dome, Yuki Yanagita put SoftBank in front with a two-run first-inning homer off Hideaki Wakui (4-1), but Rakuten came back for four runs off Colin Rea (5-5) in the fourth, when Hideto Asamura singled with one out, Hiroaki Shimauchi doubled. Daichi Suzuki’s sac fly made it 2-1, Eigoro Mori put the Eagles in front with a two-run homer, and José Marmolejos followed suit.
Tsuyoshi Yamasaki homered in the seventh to make it 5-2, and Eagles catcher Hikaru Ota doubled in two in the eighth.
Wakui, pitching for the first time since May18, allowed two runs on three hits and three walks while walking two.
Buffaloes 5, Lions 0: At Seibu Dome, Buffaloes rookie Ren Mukunoki, who was scratched from his last scheduled start, left hurt in the second inning after facing six batters, opening the way for rookie Yuki Udagawa (1-1) to retire all eight batters he faced and strike out five of them en route to his first career win.
Keita Nakagawa hit for the cycle, although it took him four days to do it. He singled on Sunday against Lotte, doubled on Tuesday against the Fighters and tripled against them on Wednesday before breaking the ice in the fourth inning off Katsunori Hirai (6-7), who allowed two runs, one earned over 6-1/3 innings.
Orix’s Elmore Leonard gang made it 2-0 in the seventh. Yuma Tongu drew a leadoff walk, pinch-runner Yuya Oda stole second and took third on a throwing error before Yuma Mune singled him home. Torai Fushimi and Nakagawa blasted solo homers off Tatsushi Masuda in the eighth.
Marines 10 Fighters 2: At Chiba Marine Stadium, Nippon Ham’s Conner Menez walked two and hit one over five hitless innings before leaving after 79 pitches. The Marines then scraped out a run in the sixth against Kosei Yoshida. Rookie catcher Kou Matsukawa singled, was bunted over and scored on an Akito Takabe single.
Matsukawa plated another run with a seventh-inning sacrifice fly, Lotte’s Tayron Guerrero took the mound in the eighth, when he hit the leadoff batter and allowed an infield single. A fielder’s choice loaded the bases, a run scored on a grounder and two more walks pushed across the tying run.
Yuki Karakawa (2-0) struck out the only batter he faced in the eighth to stop the bleeding and earned the win, when the Marines found an unopened can of whoop-ass left over from Wednesday’s one-sided wins and scored eight in the eighth.
Friday’s starting pitchers
Giants vs Dragons: Tokyo Dome 6 pm, 5 am EDT
Shosei Togo (11-6, 2.76) vs Yudai Ono (6-8, 2.75)
Swallows vs Carp: Jingu Stadium 6 pm, 5 am EDT
Reiji Kozawa (2-1, 3.73) vs Daichi Osera (8-7, 4.20)
BayStars vs Tigers: Yokohama Stadium 6 pm, 5 am EDT
Taiga Kamichatani (2-6, 5.15) vs Shintaro Fujinami (2-3, 2.98)
Active roster moves 9/8/2022
Deactivated players can be re-activated from 9/18
Central League
Activated
| Giants | P | 45 | Seishu Hatake |
| Dragons | IF | 3 | Shuhei Takahashi |
| BayStars | P | 64 | Ko Nakagawa |
Deactivated
| Swallows | P | 14 | Hirotoshi Takanashi |
| Giants | P | 19 | Iori Yamasaki |
| Dragons | OF | 51 | Kaname Takino |
| BayStars | P | 20 | Yuya Sakamoto |
| BayStars | P | 30 | Ginji Miura |
Pacific League
Activated
| Buffaloes | P | 15 | Ren Mukunoki |
| Buffaloes | IF | 5 | Masahiro Nishino |
| Buffaloes | OF | 0 | Haruto Watanabe |
| Eagles | P | 16 | Hideaki Wakui |
| Hawks | OF | 32 | Tatsuru Yanagimachi |
| Fighters | P | 28 | Ryusei Kawano |
| Lions | P | 14 | Tatsushi Masuda |
Deactivated
| Buffaloes | P | 21 | Daichi Takeyasu |
| Buffaloes | C | 33 | Masato Matsui |
| Buffaloes | OF | 1 | Shuhei Fukuda |
| Hawks | IF | 5 | Nobuhiro Matsuda |
| Fighters | P | 20 | Kenta Uehara |
| Lions | P | 42 | Bo Takahashi |
