Tag Archives: Adam Jones

NPB wrap 5-3-21

1-strike pitch to Yuma

Buffaloes 6, Lions 3

At MetLife Dome, Orix performed two different versions of the Elmore Leonard western “3:10 to Yuma.” Instead of an impoverished rancher getting a villain onto a train bound for Yuma Arizona, the NPB versions involved downtrodden Buffaloes getting the surviving dangerous Lions –on two fastballs: a 2-1 pitch to Yuma Tongu and a 1-1 heater to Yuma Mune.

Tongu’s fourth home run, a three-run sixth-inning homer, opened the scoring. Mune’s, a low liner to center against a drawn-in Lions outfield, iced the game in the eighth. Mune’s was his third of the season and his second in two games.

Keita Sano and Adam Jones co-starred in both versions, opening the sixth and eighth inning with singles off Tetsu Miyagawa (0-1) in the sixth and Ryosuke Moriwaki in the eighth, and then before the Lions knew it, or “あっという間” (attoiuma) as they say in Japanese, it was Yuma time.

The Lions got two back in the seventh against 19-year-old Buffaloes’ lefty Hiroya Miyagi, who had faced one batter over the minimum to that point. A leadoff walk and a single set up one-out Takumi Kuriyama and Cory Spangenberg RBI singles.

The Lions came within a hair of tying it when Wu Nien Ting lined a pitch down the left field line that was ruled to have gone foul by smidgen – or a 10th of a smidge. Wu struck out and Miyagi was charged with two runs over 6-2/3 innings on two walks, a hit batsman and four hits. The rookie struck out five.

By the way, I went to two games at Tigers Stadium in 1999, to see Masao Kida, who earned his only major league game the first night, the same game that Elmore Leonard kicked off by throwing out the ceremonial first pitch.

The Seibu Lions wasted five scoreless innings from Matt Dermody, whose biggest difficulty in his Japan debut was navigating umpire Shinichiro Hara’s strike zone. Dermody struck out three, walked three and allowed five hits.

Eagles 7, Hawks 4

Eagles 7, Hawks 4

At Fukuoka’s PayPay Dome, Hideto Asamura scored three runs and drove in two as the Rakuten Eagles overcame an early three-run deficit. Ryota Takinaka (2-2) struggled with his control in the first inning, when two of SoftBank’s three runs were unearned, but settled in to go five innings.

SoftBank starter Akira Niho (0-1) cruised through four innings but allowed an unearned run in the fourth and was lit up in the fifth. Asamura, who singled and scored in the fourth, tied it with a two-out, two-run double and scored on a Hiroaki Shimauchi single.

With two outs and first base open in the seventh, the Hawks elected to walk Asamura intentionally, but he scored on a two-run Shimauchi double.

Yuki Matsui earned his eighth save, but the Hawks made him work for it with some gritty at-bats in a 23-pitch inning.

BayStars 2, Dragons 1

At Nagoya’s Vantelin Dome, DeNA starting pitcher Michael Peoples (1-0) couldn’t have arrived at a more opportune time for the Central League’s last-place BayStars. The second-year right-hander struck out six while allowing four hits and walking none over six scoreless innings to win a pitchers’ duel with another 2021 debutant, Chunichi’s Kodai Umetsu (0-1).

Umetsu allowed two runs, one earned, over five innings on two hits, two walks and a hit batsman. The BayStars took the lead thanks to a leadoff error that allowed Peoples to reach and score on a walk, a sacrifice and a groundout. Keita Sano made it 2-0 in the sixth, when he hammered a hanging slider from Keisuke Tanimoto for his third home run.

After a scoreless seventh by Edwin Escobar, right fielder Tyler Austin just barely misjudged a ball, turning a double into a leadoff triple, and allowing Akira Neo to score from third on a ground out against Yasuaki Yamasaki. But that was it for Chunichi’s offense as Kazuki Mishima struck out Mike Gerber and Dayan Viciedo en route to a 1-2-3 ninth and his fifth save.

Giants  3, Carp 2

At Hiroshima’s Mazda Stadium, Zelous Wheeler hit the Yomiuri Giants’ third home run, a seventh-inning tie-breaking shot off Masato Morishita (3-3), and Yohei Kagiya  (1-0) retired all four batters he faced, including Kevin Cron after he inherited a two-out bases-loaded jam to earn the win.

Hayato Sakamoto fifth homer opened the scoring for the Giants, and Yoshihiro Maru’s second tied it in the sixth. Hiroshima’s Seiya Suzuki hit a two-run shot in the third. The Giants used four pitchers to get through the ninth. Thyago Vieira entered with one out and surrendered two hits. Yuhei Takanashi entered with two outs and the bases loaded and retired pinch-hitter Kosuke Tanaka to earn his first save.

I leave you with 8-time Golden Glove winner Ryosuke Kikuchi’s 5th inning robbery.

Starting pitchers

Pacific League

Lions vs Buffaloes: MetLife Dome 2 pm, 1 am EDT

Towa Uema (1-1, 5.02) vs Daichi Takeyasu (1-0, 3.21)

Hawks vs Eagles: PayPay Dome 2 pm, 1 am EDT

Shunsuke Kasaya (1-2, 4.30) vs Takayuki Kishi (2-2, 3.34)

Central League

Swallows vs Tigers: Jingu Stadium 2 pm, 1 am EDT

Kazuto Taguchi (1-2, 4.26) vs Yuki Nishi (3-2, 2.38)

Dragons vs BayStars: Vantelin Dome (Nagoya) 2 pm, 1 am EDT

Yudai Ono (1-2, 2.50) vs Shinichi Onuki (1-2, 5.27)

Carp vs Giants: Mazda Stadium 2 pm, 1 am EDT

Hiroki Tokoda (1-2, 4.56) vs Yuki Takahashi (5-0, 1.80)

Active roster moves 5/3/2021

Deactivated players can be re-activated from 5/13

Central League

Activated

DragonsP18Kodai Umetsu
BayStarsP13Hiromu Ise
BayStarsP45Michael Peoples
CarpOF59Minoru Omori

Dectivated

BayStarsP12Kosuke Sakaguchi
CarpP19Yusuke Nomura
SwallowsP29Yasuhiro Ogawa

Pacific League

Activated

HawksP13Akira Niho
HawksOF51Seiji Uebayashi
LionsP28Ryosuke Moriwaki
LionsP98Matt Dermody
EaglesP57Ryota Takinaka
BuffaloesP13Hiroya Miyagi

Dectivated

HawksOF54Alfredo Despaigne
BuffaloesP11Sachiya Yamasaki

NPB wrap 4-22-21

Buffaloes win thriller

Buffaloes 7, Lions 6

At Osaka’s Kyocera Dome, Orix’s Takahiro Okada tied the game with two outs in the top of the ninth with a two-out, three-run triple, and Yutaro Sugimoto plated the game winner with a single off Seibu closer Tatsushi Masuda (1-0).

The Buffaloes, trailing 6-3 after Aito Takeda’s three-run eighth-inning double put the Lions up, opened with singles by Yuma Mune and Masataka Yoshida. Adam Jones, nearly missed extra-bases before grounding sharply to third. Ryusei Sato tried to get the easy force at second, but all were safe on a fielder’s choice after a video review kept the game alive.

Okada, who had already double and singled, followed with a good at-bat in which he fouled off a pair of two-strike pitches before pulling a fly into the right-field corner. Sugimoto grounded a good 3-2 pitch into the hole at short but Golden Glover-winner Sosuke Genda couldn’t stop it.

Reed Garrett struck out two in a 1-2-3 seventh and was the pitcher of record for the Lions before the blown save. The Buffaloes’ three-run hole was partly due to a decision to prevent the runner on second from scoring with two outs in the eighth. With the outfield pulled way in, the Buffaloes had no chance to catch Takeda’s high fly to the warning track in center.

Fighters 3, Marines 1

At Chiba’s Zozo Marine Stadium, Takahide Ikeda  (2-2) a journeyman right-hander acquired in a low-voltage March trade with Rakuten turned in his second straight solid effort for Nippon Ham, allowing a run on six hits and a walk while striking out seven over seven innings. Lotte starter Daiki Iwashita (2-2) allowed two runs over five innings.

The Fighters broke a 1-1 tie in the second on a Ryo Watanabe single and a Ryo Ishikawa double. The pair contributed to a sixth-inning insurance run as Watanabe doubled and went to third on an Ishikawa single before scoring on a sac fly.

Thursday’s games marked the Japan debut for new Fighter Ronny Rodriguez, who batted sixth and started at third. He struck out swinging twice in three at-bats. Bryan Rodriguez began his fourth season in Japan with a scoreless eighth before closer Toshihiro Sugiura earned his fifth save.

Giants 8, Tigers 3

At Tokyo Dome, Hanshin starter Takumi Akiyama (2-2) more than doubled his ERA in a three-inning crash and burn, walking none but giving up six runs on 10 hits. Giants starter Yuki Takahashi (4-0) gave up a weird double to open the game, but managed to give up two doubles and a walk but no runs in the first.

Takahashi entered with a 0.41 ERA. He walked four and allowed three runs over six innings, but the game was never out of hand. Kazuma Okamoto, who homered twice on Wednesday, opened the scoring with a two-run first-inning double and scored on a Shinnosuke Shigenobu single.

Hayato Sakamoto made up for being caught looking in the first by capping the Giants’ second with a two-run home run. Prior to the game’s start, NTV’s video feed showed two Tigers fans walking into Tokyo Dome, one wearing a Fumiya Hojo shirt, which made me wonder if Hojo was currently even on the first team. He proved he was with a two-run pinch-hit homer in the sixth.

Giants-Tigers highlights

Dragons 1, BayStars 0

At Yokohama Stadium, Koji Fukutani (1-1), Chunichi’s surprising Opening Day starter, allowed four hits and a walk over eight innings while striking out seven, and the Dragons scored the game’s only run on a ninth-inning throwing error after stranding six runners over the first four innings.

Pinch-runner Wataru Takamatsu scored from first on a two-out ninth-inning infield single. Shortstop Tatsuhiro Shibata made a diving stop to keep a grounder in the infield, but his needless throw to first short-hopped Neftali Soto for an error. With the win – and the BayStars’ 10th straight losing decision, the Dragons now have their first win streak of the season.

DeNA official: Bad start former manager’s fault

BayStars starter Haruhiro Hamaguchi worked six scoreless innings despite walking six. He allowed back-to-back singles to open the game and another single in the fourth.

Shibata foreshadowed his ninth-inning error with a wide throw to first. His attempted throw to complete a 3-6-1 double play missed but was saved when first base coach Masahiro Araki couldn’t get out of the way. The Dragons lead runner tried to score but was out first-to-short-to-first base coach-to-pitcher-to-third-to-catcher. Does this go as “3-6-C-1-5-2?”

Tyler Austin had two of the BayStars’ four hits.

Swallows 7, Carp 4

At Hiroshima’s Mazda Stadium, the fourth time taking the lead was the charm as Yakult finally overcame Hiroshima, breaking a 4-4 eighth-inning tie on a Kotaro Yamasaki’s two-run triple off 24-year-old lefty Atsuya Horie (0-1).

Scott McGough (2-0) who allowed the Carp to tie it for the third time on two hits and an error in the seventh, got the win after one-out pinch-hit singles by Yudai Koga and former batting champ Shingo Kawabata set the table for Yamasaki. The Swallows leadoff man had walked twice and scored on rookie Hiyu Motoyama’s third-inning homer and came home in the eighth on a Motoyama squeeze.

Hiroki Kondo and Taichi Ishiyama each worked a scoreless inning to close it out with Ishiyama getting his Japan-best seventh save.

DeNA skipper Miura throws extra BP

First-year DeNA BayStars manager Daisuke Miura dusted off his pitching form on Thursday and threw over 100 pitches in early batting practice in an effort to wake up his offense, Hochi Shimbun reported.

“Out batting practice pitchers are all pretty tired,” said Miura, the BayStars former ace. “It didn’t mean anything. I was glad I was able to throw strikes.”

Former Lotte coach, Hawks player Robson dies

Tom Robson, who finished his playing career in 1976 with the Nankai Hawks and returned to coach the Lotte Marines starting in 1995, died of natural causes in Chandler, Arizona, the Associated Press reported Wednesday.

Bobby Valentine, who had Robson on his coaching staffs with Texas, Lotte and the Mets, tweeted the sad news. Robson stayed on with the Marines in 1996 after Valentine was fired. He rejoined Valentine with the Mets and returned to Japan with him as a Marines coach from 2004 to 2006.

Starting pitchers

Pacific League

Fighters vs Buffaloes: Sapporo Dome 6 pm, 5 am EDT

Drew VerHagen (0-0, 3.00) vs Taisuke Yamaoka (0-2, 2.74)

Eagles vs Lions: Rakuten Seimei Park Miyagi 6 pm, 5 am EDT

Hideaki Wakui (3-0, 1.24) vs Kona Takahashi (3-0, 3.18)

Marines vs Hawks: Zozo Marine Stadium 5:45 pm, 4:45 am EDT

Toshiya Nakamura (-) vs Shuta Ishikawa (1-2, 3.25)

Central League

Giants vs Carp: Tokyo Dome 5:45 pm, 4:45 am EDT

Tomoyuki Sugano (1-1, 2.05) vs Allen Kuri (3-1, 2.77)

Swallows vs Dragons: Jingu Stadium 5:30 pm, 4:30 am EDT

Yasunobu Okugawa (1-1, 7.20) vs Takahiro Matsuba (0-2, 4.80)

Tigers vs BayStars: Koshien Stadium 6 pm, 5 am EDT

Shintaro Fujinami (2-0, 1.90) vs Yuya Sakamoto (0-1, 5.40)

Active roster moves 4/22/2021

Deactivated players can be re-activated from 5/2

Central League

Activated

CarpIF51Kaito Kozono

Dectivated

CarpIF61Masaya Yano

Pacific League

Activated

MarinesP37Fumiya Ono
MarinesOF38Akito Takabe
FightersIF53Ronny Rodriguez

Dectivated

MarinesOF2Kyota Fujiwara
EaglesC55Takaya Tanaka
EaglesIF30Toshitake Yokoo
EaglesIF48Yoshiaki Watanabe
FightersIF48Kyohei Ueno