No extra innings for 2021 league games

As the season prepares to get underway, NPB announced Monday night that no extra innings will be played in either league this season following an extraordinary meeting of the 12 teams representatives.

In a parallel announcement, all March and April night games in Tokyo as well as Saitama, Chiba and Kanagawa prefectures will start before 6 p.m. The moves are part of an effort to comply with the government’s request that businesses in the areas hardest hit by the current wave of the coronavirus pandemic close by 9 p.m.

Young and wild: Sasaki starts

At Yokohama Stadium, Lotte Marines rookie Roki Sasaki pitched two innings in a practice game against the DeNA BayStars in a makeup game for the rainout of Sunday’s preseason finale, Nikkan Sports reported.

The flame-throwing 19-year-old right-hander retired the first five batters he faced before surrendering two runs on two hits and two walks. Sasaki, who turned pro a year ago but had not pitched in a game with the Marines until last week, touched 95.7 mph and sat at 93.

“There are things you can only understand if you pitch in a situation like this,” Sasaki told the media. “Unlike what I’d been doing, this reveals issues that I think I can proactively address in practice.”

Sasaki is scheduled to join the farm team to begin pitching for real this season on the Marines’ Eastern League farm team.