Roki Sasaki threw his fastest pitch of the season, although it’s nothing like he used to back when he was really young, while the powerless Chunichi Dragons are really feeling the burden of this year’s dead baseball. While only two teams were shutout Tuesday, only three managed to score more than two runs.

On Tuesday, I published research on the relative pitchers’ elbow sprain situations in the United States and Japan, and what that means for the future, including that of Roki Sasaki. Speaking of Sasaki there seems to be a growing feeling in Japan that he is headed for the Los Angeles Dodgers, but if that is the case, and something untoward has happened, we’ll never learn of it from Japan’s mainstream media, where news goes to die.

Tuesday’s games

Buffaloes 2, Lions 1: At Osaka UFO Dome, Daiki Tajima (2-1) allowed an unearned run over five innings, and four Orix relievers struck out seven batters over the final four innings to lock down the win over Seibu as the three-time defending PL champs moved over .500 for the first time this year.

Yuma Tongu’s leadoff double sparked a two-run second inning off Kaima Taira (1-2), capped by Shuhei Fukuda’s run-scoring single, with Lions center fielder Shinya Hasegawa throwing out Yuma Mune out at the plate. Takeya Nakamura’s second hit, a leadoff double, two walks and a fumble by Mune at third brought home a fourth-inning run. Nakamura, a six-time PL home run champion was batting second for the first time in his career.

Orix’s Andres Machado struck out three in the eighth, and Yoshihisa Hirano worked a 1-2-3 ninth for his sixth save.