Tag Archives: Allen Kuri

NPB 2020 Sept. 28

Kuri pitches Carp past ‘Stars

Allen Kuri (5-5) threw his second career shutout and his first in over a year on Monday, as the Hiroshima Carp beat the DeNA BayStars 4-0 in the only game on the NPB calendar.

The 29-year-old, who was criticized a week earlier for being too cute with his breaking pitches, took the initiative with his hard stuff early, using his cutter and running fastball often.

He allowed seven hits and two walks while striking out seven, including four straight at one stretch.

Carp rookie Minoru Omori manufactured a run in the first off Masaya Kyoyama (1-1), scoring on a sacrifice fly after an infield single and a stolen base.

Seven-time Golden Glove Award-winner Ryosuke Kikuchi slammed the door on the BayStars by starting a slick double play to end the third inning that started with two on and no out. Kikuchi followed that with a leadoff homer in the home half. He doubled in a run in the fifth, and Kuri hit a chopper to second base in the seventh that brought home another run.

Kuri needed 111 pitches to get through eight innings but came back out for the ninth. Rookie manager Shinji Sasaoka continued to show a willingness to let his guys finish. He kept Kuri on the mound in the ninth with two on and one out after he walked a batter with his 128th pitch.

But Kuri responded by getting two fly outs and ending it.

For the curious, Kuri, whose father is American, has two versions of his first name. He is typically listed as “Aren”–the romanization of his Japanese name, but told me he also spells it Allen.

Giants giving pitcher Tone 2-way look

Yomiuri Giants pitcher Chiaki Tone, whom the national team’s machine-translated English roster page listed as “Chiaki Door Root”– a transliteration of the two Chinese characters in his family name — is now spending time playing left field for the Giants third team, the Hochi Shimbun reported Monday.

The 26-year-old lefty, has had an injury-plagued career. He pitched in six games in 2017, missed all of 2018 and appeared in just 26 games last year.

A left-handed hitter who was the Giants’ second pick in 2014, Tone had five plate appearances on Sunday. He doubled, singled, walked twice and struck out.

The third teams do not compete in a league but rather take part in games against corporate, club university and independent minor league teams.

Active roster moves 9/28/2020

Deactivated players can be re-activated from 10/8

Central League

Activated

None

Dectivated

DragonsP17Yuya Yanagi

Pacific League

Activated

None

Dectivated

LionsOF51Manaya Nishikawa
HawksP13Akira Niho
HawksC62Takashi Umino
HawksIF22Tetsuro Nishida
EaglesP20Tomohiro Anraku
EaglesIF48Yoshiaki Watanabe
EaglesOF38Masaki Iwami
FightersP18Kosei Yoshida
FightersP27Nick Martinez
BuffaloesP11Sachiya Yamasaki
BuffaloesIF53Sho Gibo

Starting pitchers for Sept. 28, 2020

Pacific League

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

Naoyuki Uwasawa (7-3, 2.23) vs Ayumu Ishikawa (6-3, 4.34)

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

Takahiro Norimoto (5-3, 3.52) vs Kodai Senga (6-5, 3.16)

Buffaloes vs Lions: Kyocera Dome 6 pm, 5 am EDT

Yoshinobu Yamamoto (6-3, 2.63) vs Kona Takahashi (5-7, 4.52)

Central League

BayStars vs Swallows: Yokohama Stadium 6 pm, 5 am EDT

Yuya Sakamoto (2-0, 5.06) vs Yasuhiro Ogawa (9-3, 3.34)

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

Haruto Takahashi (2-3, 2.35) vs Akiyoshi Katsuno (2-3, 3.86)

Carp vs Giants: Mazda Stadium 6 pm, 5 am EDT

Atsushi Endo (2-3, 4.26) vs Tomoyuki Sugano (11-0, 1.78)

NPB 2020 9-21 members notes

What’s wrong with the Tigers’ imports

Watching Monday’s Pro Yakyu News with analysts Tadashi Matsumoto and Takenori Emoto, I was struck by how negative they were, pretty much toward everyone, but I wasn’t really listening until as my ex used to say, my “Dumbo ears” came out when Matsumoto and Emoto were taking turns praising first baseman Justin Bour and pitcher Jon Edwards.

“Bour’s great isn’t he? That great swing. A great attitude. He is trying hard to speak Japanese at the postgame hero interview,” Matsumoto said. “He’s really a good hitter, but you know what? He should have hit more home runs by now.”

Then it was Emoto’s turn to burn.

“Edwards has good stuff, but he needs to pitch a lot,” the former Tigers and Hawks pitcher said. “But he’s way too heavy. Jeez. He weighs 106 kilograms. That’s too heavy to pitch in Japan.”

Of course it wasn’t just the imports. Emoto complained about all the breaking pitches Carp right-hander Allen Kuri threw.

“He’s got a good fastball. Nobody could touch it,” Emoto said of Kuri. “Everything they hit was a breaking ball.”

Kuri might not be an import but his father is American, although I don’t think that had any part in Emoto’s analysis. Ironically, the video they showed of Hayato Sakamoto hitting one of Kuri’s offspeed pitches, was a good pitch that rolled the right way. That stuff happens.

Maybe it’s just those two, and maybe I’m too sensitive toward slights toward non-Japanese.