The Nippon Ham home run streak ends, Kenta Maeda‘s search for his first Japan comeback win goes on, and Hiroto Saiki tied the Central League strikeout record with 16, although the big story might just be how he exited the game, and the curious lack of thunder this has attracted, a sign that Japanese baseball might be growing the hell up.
In pursuit of records
Japanese baseball has a curious relationship with records, and has a long history of risking injuries and meaningful wins so that players can strive for records.
With a chance to establish a CL record, Saiki was yanked after throwing 105 pitches through eight innings. Of the five pitchers in Japanese pro ball history to fan 16 through eight innings, Saiki is just the second to leave the game at that point.
Last June 6, Livan Moinelo came out for a pinch-hitter in the top of the ninth with SoftBank leading 2-0 in the ninth at Jingu Stadium after throwing 117 pitches before Roberto Osuna blew the save in the home half of a 3-2 loss. The record for strikeouts in a game is 19, set by Orix’s Koji Noda in 1995 and tied by Roki Sasaki in his 2022 perfect game.
At the time, SoftBank manager Hiroki Kokubo said Moinelo had looked like he was giving it the last drop of his energy in the eighth.
You know Japan is calming the hell down when this kind of outrageous managing – pulling a starter when he was in position to set a record without having already thrown 300 pitches–isn’t called out by every former player with access to a pen.
After Tuesday’s game, Tigers manager Kyuji Fujikawa admitted to dropping the ball, “That’s something to regret—on our side. I feel responsible. I didn’t realize it at the time, and maybe we could have let him pitch the ninth. I feel truly sorry for Saiki.”
“His pitching was outstanding, but he had already thrown over 100 pitches. More important than any record is that he continues to improve for the future.”
Fujikawa knows about the burden of record pursuits.
In 2007, when he was pursuing the NPB single-season saves record, his manager Akinobu Okada used him as often as possible. After Fujikawa pitched in four-straight games from Aug. 30 to Sept. 2, he was sent in on Sept. 4, ONLY because Okada was unaware that NPB’s save rule had changed that year and it was no longer a save situation.
After the game, Okada said, “If I had known it was not a save situation (for Fujikawa) I would have left (Kentaro) Hashimoto stay in the game to finish.”
In the on-field postgame hero interview, Saiki revealed he, too, was unaware of the record, saying, “No, I didn’t know.”
Asked about his puzzled expression when receiving a bouquet of flowers after the eighth inning, he laughed and said, “I was like, ‘What is this?’”
“I had no idea about any record. I’d reached 100 pitches, so I just thought, ‘Okay, I’m being taken out.’”
Japan definitely has changed when this kind of flagrant disregard for records that have nothing to do with winning games can be forgiven so easily. One year around the all-star break during the mid 1990s, Yomiuri Giants manager Shigeo Nagashima did everything possible to keep Hideki Matsui‘s consecutive games-played streak going by playing him in the middle of a pennant race for several games when he was unable to bat or throw due to a shoulder injury.
Tuesday’s games
Lions 8, Hawks 6: SoftBank came from a run down on a solo homer from former Lion Hotaka Yamakawain the second and a two-run Kensuke Kondo shot, only for Seibu’s Shuta Tonosaki to tie it with a two-run homer in the fourth. The Lions regained the lead when Shuichiro Kishi doubled in a run in the fifth and scored on Yuta Nakami’s first career homer. Yamakawa doubled in two runs in the eighth, but the Hawks fell to their third loss.
Carp 5, Giants 2: Sandro Fabian and Minoru Omori each hit two-run homers off Yomiuri’s Forrest Whitley, who surrendered an unearned run in the sixth. Hiroshima’s Masato Morishita allowed two runs on six hits and three walks over 5-1/3 innings. Shota Nakazaki, Hiroshima’s closer during their 2018-to-2018 heyday, recorded his 116th career save and his first since 2019.
Buffaloes 3, Marines 1: Orix catcher Kenya Wakatsuki singled to open the third and scored on a bases-loaded walk. Lotte’s Akito Takabe doubled with one out in the sixth and scored the tying run, on another bases-loaded walk. With two outs in the seventh, Wakatsuki doubled and scored on a Yuma Mune single. Ryoma Nishikawa homered in the eighth for an insurance run. Former Marine Luis Perdomo got the win in relief and Andres Machado the save.
Tigers 9, Swallows 3: The game was shaping up as a pitchers’ duel between Saiki and Yasuhiro Ogawa, who were both sharp through four, when each team got a lead runner on via an infield single, before scoring them via a single and an error. The errors then took center stage, with Hanshin scoring six more unearned runs thanks to missed catches by Domingo Santana in the fifth and reliever Kazuto Taguchi in the sixth. Shota Morishita and Teruaki Sato each hit two-run homers for the Tigers, while Kazuya Maruyama hit his second career homer and his first since he was a fresh-faced rookie in 2022 as Yakult’s newest second-round draft pick.
The loss was the second of the season for the Swallows, who have yet to attempt a sacrifice bunt through nine games.
BayStars 5, Dragons 3: Seiya Hosokawa, whose career might easily have died on the vine at DeNA’s minor league facility in Yokosuka had Chunichi not selected him in the first active-player “second-chance” draft in 2022, singled in a first-inning run against his former team, but that would be the Dragons’ last real laugh. Tatsuo Ebina and Shugo Maki, batting leadoff, each hit two-run fourth-inning doubles to put DeNA in front for good. Kanagawa native Yutaro Itayama hit a two-run pinch-hit homer off Yasuaki Yamasaki, who retired the final three batters he faced to close it out.
Eagles 3, Fighters 0: Rakuten became the first team this season to keep the Nippon Ham from reaching the seats after the Fighters hit 22 in their first nine games. Because Japan’s media loves headlines with big numbers, we know that Kenta Maeda’s bid for his first Japan win in 3,840 days unraveled in the fourth inning when he left the mound with a right-ankle injury with one on and one out in the top of the third. A week after throwing a no-hitter Fighters lefty Haruki Hosono surrendered a two-run fourth-inning double to Fumiya Kurokawa. Eagles closer Shoma Fujihira recorded his third save in Rakuten’s five-game unbeaten run.
