NPB’s 2022 home run leader declined to be overshadowed on Opening Day 2 by MLB’s 2022 home run leader as both league champs won as the 10 teams that didn’t play Thursday in Hokkaido started their seasons.
Including Thursday’s opener at Public Money for Corporations Field Hokkaido, all six opening games were sell outs.
On a downside, it looks like the dire highlights situation in NPB will get tighter and bleaker this year. PL TV is no longer providing embed codes for their highlights, while the Swallows, a reliable source until last season, did not post any on Thursday.
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Swallows 4, Carp 0: At Jingu Stadium, Munetaka Murakami, fresh off two massive extra-base hits in the WBC knockout stage, hit a two-run homer off Daichi Osera (0-1) in his first at-bat of the season to match Aaron Judge’s season debut in New York on Thursday. Murakami, who struggled through most of the WBC, blasted a two-run sayonara double to see off Mexico in the semifinals and blasted a massive game-tying shot that tied the final before Japan won 3-2.
Yasuhiro “Ryan” Ogawa (1-0) allowed three hits and a walk while striking out four over seven innings. Jose Osuna, who fell a triple shy of achieving baseball’s most overrated idiot stat, homered in the sixth. Tetsuto Yamada, who appears to have found his base-stealing gear in the WBC singled twice, stole two bases and scored an insurance run on Japan teammate Yuhei Nakamura’s eighth-inning squeeze.
The 30-year-old Yamada entered Friday’s game with 190 career steals but just 22 over the previous three seasons.
“I’d say that since at this rate he’ll steal like 300 bases this year, I’d say that’s a good pace.”
–Yakult Swallows manager Shingo Takatsu on Tetsuto Yamada’s two Opening Day steals.
Noboru Shimizu pitched a 1-2-3 eighth, and without 2022 CL saves leader Scott McGough, who signed over the winter with the Arizona Diamondbacks, Tomoya Hoshi worked a 1-2-3 ninth.
Buffaloes 3, Lions 2, 10 innings: At Seibu Dome, Seibu wasted eight solid innings from Kona Takahashi. Former Lion Tomoya Mori’s first home run as a Buffalo tied it in ninth against rookie Minato Aoyama, Yuma Mune blasted the first regular season pitch in Japan from Jesús Tinoco over the fence in right and Yoshihisa Hirano recorded his 214th save in Japan.
Buffaloes rookie Shunpeita Yamashita, pitching in his first major league game, allowed a run over 5-1/3 innings. He allowed four hits, walked on and struck out seven. Jacob Waguespack (1-0) struck out three in the eighth to earn the win for the Japan Series champs.
Hawks 4, Marines 0: At Fukuoka Dome, Ryoya Kurihara returned from his April 2022 knee surgery, and reacquainted his bat with pitched balls, which took a beating. Kurihara doubled his first time up and belted a three-run homer in the sixth off lefty Kazuya Ojima (0-1).
Hawks southpaw Tomohisa Ozeki (1-0) didn’t allow a base runner until Yudai Fujioka singled with one out in the sixth and struck out seven over seven innings. Samurai Japan members Takuya Kai and Taisei Makihara doubled in the seventh to make it 4-0.
The Hawks’ win was their seventh straight on Opening Day.
Tigers 6, BayStars 3: At Osaka Dome, Koyo Aoyagi (1-0) struck out seven while allowing a run over 5-1/3 innings and squeezing in Hanshin’s fourth run. Teruaki Sato doubled twice and scored twice for the Tigers, who survived a scary ninth when Atsuki Yuasa walked the bases loaded with one out before shutting DeNA down.
Dragons 6, Giants 3: At Tokyo Dome, Chunichi lefty Shinnosuke Ogasawara pitched into the eighth inning, allowing three runs and throwing 145 pitches, Akiyoshi (1-0) took over, got out of the inning on one pitch and earned the win.
Yohei Oshima had three hits, singled in the game’s first run off new Giants import Tyler Beede, and was intentionally walked to load the bases with one out and the game tied 3-3 in the ninth. Shuhei Takahashi followed with a two-run double. New import Aristides Aquino singled twice and capped the scoring in Chunichi’s four-run ninth by bringing Oshima in with a sac fly.
Sho Nakata drove in all three Giants runs with a fourth-inning homer and a two-run eighth-inning triple that put them up 3-2.
