Olympic additions
Japan’s Olympic baseball team has announced two replacement players for the roster, SoftBank Hawks ace Kodai Senga and Nippon Ham Fighters rookie right-hander Hiromi Ito. The pair replace two Giants, ace Tomoyuki Sugano and reliever Kota Nakagawa, who are both currently not fit to go.
Senga, by the way, will make his second start of the season on Tuesday after hurting his ankle in his season debut.
Former Dragons slugger Oshima passes away
Yasunori Oshima, who amassed 2,204 hits in a 24-year career with the Chunichi Dragons and Nippon Ham Fighters, and hit 382 home runs, passed away on June 30 at the age of 70 following a four-year battle with colorectal cancer.
Marines 8, Eagles 1
At Chiba’s Zozo Marine Stadium, Leonys Martin, Yudai Fujioka, Adeiny Hechavarría, and Brandon Laird each homered as the Lotte Marines left a mark on the Rakuten Eagles by completing a three-game sweep and pulling into a tie for second place in the Pacific League 4-1/2 games behind the Orix Buffaloes along with the SoftBank Hawks.
Daiki Iwashits (7-4) allowed a run over seven innings as the Eagles dropped into fourth place. Martin’s home run, to open the scoring in the second, was his PL-best 19th.
Starting pitchers
Pacific League
Fighters vs Lions: Asahikawa Starffin Stadium 6 pm, 5 am EDT
Takayuki Kato (3-5, 3.73) vs Wataru Matsumoto (7-3, 2.54)
Marines vs Hawks: Zozo Marine Stadium 5:45 pm, 4:45 am EDT
Kota Futaki (3-4, 3.91) vs Kodai Senga (1-0, 0.00)
Buffaloes vs Eagles: Kyocera Dome (Osaka) 6 pm, 5 am EDT
Hitomi Honda (-) vs Takahiro Norimoto (6-3, 3.01)
Central League
Giants vs Dragons: Maebashi Stadium 6 pm, 5 am EDT
Angel Sanchez (5-4, 4.64) vs Yudai Ono (3-6, 3.47)
Swallows vs Tigers: Jingu Stadium 5:30 pm, 4:30 am EDT
Kazuto Taguchi (4-5, 3.39) vs Koyo Aoyagi (7-2, 2.02)
Carp vs BayStars: Mazda Stadium 6 pm, 5 am EDT
Daichi Osera (2-3, 4.05) vs Yuya Sakamoto (2-2, 4.76)
Active roster moves 7/5/2021
Deactivated players can be re-activated from 7/15
Central League
Activated
None
Dectivated
| Tigers | P | 17 | Yuta Iwasada |
| Tigers | OF | 97 | Dan Onodera |
| Dragons | P | 42 | Randy Rosario |
Pacific League
Activated
| Marines | P | 69 | Hideto Doi |
| Marines | IF | 55 | Adeiny Hechavarria |
| Eagles | P | 22 | Kazuhisa Makita |
| Eagles | C | 26 | Ginjiro Sumitani |
Dectivated
| Marines | P | 60 | Rikuto Yokoyama |
| Marines | IF | 5 | Hisanori Yasuda |
| Eagles | P | 13 | Kohei Morihara |
| Eagles | C | 44 | Yuichi Adachi |
