On Wednesday, the Seibu Lions took a hammer to Koji Fukutani, who has been announced as the Chunichi Dragons’ Opening Day Starter. The 30-year-old right-hander allowed 10 runs on 12 hits over three innings in the exhibition at Vantelin Nagoya Dome in a 14-2 loss.
Center fielder Gakuto Wakabayashi, the Lions’ fourth pick out of Komazawa University, drew a first-inning walk from Fukutani and hit a three-run homer in the third. Third baseman Brandon Taiga Tysinger, the Lions sixth pick out of the Tokyo University of Agriculture, Okhotsk, singled twice was hit by a pitch and belted a three-run home run off lefty Hiroto Fuku, one of the Dragons’ key bullpen guys.
Lions starter Tatsuya Imai, who walked more batters last season (52) than he struck out (44) in 61-2/3 innings last season, allowed an unearned run over five innings.
At Koshien Stadium, Hiroshima Carp newcomer Kevin Cron struck out in both of his at-bats after homering in each of his last two games, but the big news will be new Tiger youngster Teruaki Sato, who put a sweet swing on a straight fastball down the pipe from Tayler Scott and knocked it 10 rows back in left center, a huge poke.
Sato, the Tigers’ first pick out of Kinki University, has been the talk of the spring. He started at third and had an infield single and a double in three at-bats. Jerry Sands, who homered in his first two preseason at-bats last weekend, went 1-for-3 with a double.
In Shizuoka, because no visiting team wants to play outdoor games in chilly Sendai in the spring until they have to when the regular season starts, the Rakuten Eagles hosted the Lotte Marines away from home. Lotte scored eight runs off three of the Eagles’ key pitchers, tagging starter Takahiro Norimoto for three runs on four hits but no walks over 4-1/3 innings.
Alan Busenitz, who saved 18 games in a 2020 season split between setting up and closing, gave up two runs on four hits in the seventh, and Yuki Matsui, the team’s closer for four of the last six seasons, for three runs on four hits and a walk in the eighth.
Daiki Iwashita started for the Marines and worked four scoreless innings, while Frank Herrmann allowed an infield hit, his first of the spring in a scoreless seventh.
In Yokohama, 20-year-old third baseman Yuki James Nomura, the Nippon Ham Fighters’ second pick in 2018, singled twice and hit his third homer of the spring in an 8-3 win over the DeNA BayStars. Naoyuki Uwasawa, the Fighters’ Opening Day starter, scattered a double, five singles and two walks, while striking out five over six scoreless innings.
Right-hander Taisei Irie, the BayStars’ first-round signing out of last year’s draft, allowed three runs on five hits and two walks while striking out three over four innings. He twice pitched out of jams against Fighters cleanup hitter Sho Nakata.
DeNA’s second pick last autumn, Shugo Maki, started at first and went 2-for-5, for his second straight multi-hit game.
Taiki Sekine, a 25-year-old outfielder with a superb track record in the minors, continues to flay the ball in the spring, although the organization seems convinced his future is as a reserve outfielder. Sekine’s career is now on course to be one of those guys like Takeshi Yamasaki or Shigenobu Shima, who in his age 27 season hits absolutely everything in the spring, forcing the team to give him a starting job and then becoming the story of the season.
But you know how those stories go, right? Instead of asking what the heck the team had been doing with this guy for the last five years, every story will be how he “suddenly became good.”
I rank Sekine among the five best hitting prospects in Japan’s minor leagues.
At Osaka’s Kyocera Dome, Adam Jones drove in a run each with a single and a double off veteran Swallows southpaw Masanori Ishikawa. Prior to the game, he tweeted that he was about to something he had never done on a ball field. 0stensibly what he had never done was play first base, where he started for the Buffaloes in their 7-6 win over Yakult.
And since @SimplyAJ10 asked for it… his first-ever putout at first base as he completes a double play to retire Norichika Aoki on March 10, 2021.
The Buffaloes tagged Ishikawa for seven runs on nine hits in 1-2/3 innings. Steven Moya, who singled off the lefty in the first, sent him packing in the second with his first home run of the spring.
Swallows slugger Munetaka Murakami hit his first exhibition season homer, a two-run shot off second-year right-hander Tyler Higgins, who allowed a hit, a walk and an unearned run in the sixth.
At Fukuoka Dome, back-to-back ninth-inning doubles by Hayato Sakamoto and slugger Kazuma Okamoto tied the game 1-1 allowing the Yomiuri Giants to avoid losing 13 straight games to the SoftBank Hawks.
Shota Takeda, who is trying to reestablish himself as one of the Hawks’ front-line pitchers, allowed two hits and two walks while striking out five in five scoreless innings.
