Tag Archives: Angel Sanchez

NPB wrap 6-22-21

Buffaloes stampede to 10th straight win

OK, not exactly their 10th straight win, because this is Japan there was a tie, but ties are essentially ignored, Orix’s streak of winning 10 straight decisions is their longest such streak since 1997 — when they were known as the BlueWave, and one year removed from the franchise’s last Japan championship behind MVP Ichiro Suzuki

Buffaloes 5, Fighters 2

At Osaka’s Kyocera Dome, Nobuyoshi Yamada worked 2-2/3 scoreless innings of relief after pitching out of a one-out bases-loaded jam in the first inning, when Orix starter Taisuke Yamaoka let in a run on a leadoff single and three straight one-out walks.

Nippon Ham starter Drew VerHagen (1-6) was the unfortunate looser in a game in which he pitched well, allowing two runs on three walks and three hits over 5-1/3 innings. Takahiro Okada tied the game in the second with his eighth home run, and Yuma Mune energized two late Buffaloes rallies. He singled, stole a base and scored in the sixth, capped by Yutaro Sugimoto’s two-run double.

Mune doubled in an insurance run in the seventh, and Sugiura singled in another in the eighth to make it 5-2. Buffaloes manager Satoshi Nakajima gave his top-tier relievers a break and the other guys got the job done, in precarious fashion.

Hawks 6, Marines 4

At Chiba’s Zozo Marine Stadium, Colin Rea (1-0) dodged five walks worth of bullets to allow one run on two hits over six hits and earn his first win in Japan. SoftBank’s leadoff man Masaki Mimori and No. 9 hitter Nobuhiro Matsuda each scored a pair of runs, while No. 2 hitter Akira Nakamura had a pair of sac flies, and No. 3 hitter Yuki Yanagita had a sac fly and two-run home run, his 16th, to make it a 6-1 game in the seventh.

Shogo Nakamura hit a two-run homer in the eighth, his fifth, and Tsuyoshi Sugano made it less of a blowout with a solo homer off Sho Iwasaki, who recorded his first save, in the ninth Lotte starter Kota Futaki (3-4) allowed all six SoftBank runs.

Lions 2, Eagles 0

At MetLife Dome, Seibu’s Aito Takeda accounted for all the scoring with a two-out two-run, fourth-inning home run, his eighth, off former Lions ace Takayuki Kishi (3-5). Kishi lasted six innings, striking out six while walking two and allowing six hits.

Wataru Matsumoto (6-3) struck out nine over eight innings. He walked four and gave up three hits. Kaima Taira stranded two runners in the ninth to earn his eighth save.

Tigers 2, Dragons 1

At Nagoya’s Vantelin Dome, Chunichi’s Sawamura Award-winning lefty Yudai Ono (3-5) gave Hanshin one scoring chance, and they made the most of it. A one-out Teruaki Sato double and a Jerry Sands walk set the table for back-to-back RBI singles by captain Kento Itohara and catcher Ryutaro Umeno.

Sato’s double was off the top of the wall at Nagoya Dome and would have been a home run at every other park in Japan except Sapporo Dome, where it would have hit the wall, or Koshien, where it would have been caught for an out because of the park’s massive power allies.

Side-armer Koyo Aoyagi (6-2) allowed an unearned run over seven innings, Suguru Iwazaki worked the eighth and Robert Suarez the ninth for his 22nd save.

Giants 6, BayStars 1

At Ishikawa Prefectural Stadium, Yomiuri’s Angel Sanchez (5-4) allowed a run over six innings, allowing six hits and hitting a batter while striking out six, while Yoshihiro Maru and career minor leaguer Takumi Kitamura each hit three-run homers. Maru’s was his sixth.

Giants-BayStars highlights

Swallows 6, Carp 1

At Hiroshima’s Mazda Stadium, Hiroshima ace Daichi Osera (2-3) surrendered four runs, one earned, in the second inning and gave up two more before leaving after six. Lefty Kazuto Taguchi (4-4) gave up nine hits but no walks over seven innings while allowing one run.

Osera kept the Swallows’ big guns quiet but his error on Taguchi’s one-out sacrifice in the second opened the door for three runs to score.

Starting pitchers

Pacific League

Lions vs Eagles: MetLife Dome 5:45 pm, 4:45 am EDT

Takeru Sasaki (0-0, 4.91) vs Masahiro Tanaka (2-4, 2.90)

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

Shota Suzuki (1-3, 4.05) vs Nao Higashihama (1-0, 3.86)

Buffaloes vs Fighters: Kyocera Dome (Osaka) 6 pm, 5 am EDT

Daiki Tajima (3-4, 4.33) vs Takahide Ikeda (3-6, 2.79)

Central League

Giants vs BayStars: Toyama Alpen Stadium 6 pm, 5 am EDT

Shun Yamaguchi (-) vs Shota Imanaga (1-1, 3.47)

Dragons vs Tigers: Vantelin Dome (Nagoya) 5:45 pm, 4:45 am EDT

Koji Fukutani (3-6, 3.99) vs Raul Alcantara (2-1, 4.38)

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

Allen Kuri (5-4, 3.05) vs Cy Sneed (1-1, 4.19)

Active roster moves 6/22/2021

Deactivated players can be re-activated from 7/2

Central League

Activated

GiantsP15Angel Sanchez
GiantsOF13Takayuki Kajitani
DragonsP22Yudai Ono
DragonsC44Yuya Gunji
BayStarsP49Kevin Shackelford
BayStarsP93Koo Nakagawa
BayStarsC50Yudai Yamamoto
CarpOF5Hisayoshi Chono

Dectivated

GiantsP41Kota Nakagawa
DragonsOF51Kaname Takino

Pacific League

Activated

MarinesP18Kota Futaki
EaglesP11Takayuki Kishi
BuffaloesP19Taisuke Yamaoka
BuffaloesP26Atsushi Nomi

Dectivated

None

NPB wrap 6-3-21

Interleague Day 9

The leagues split Thursday’s games, two wins, two losses and one tie after the Carp and Fighters were rained out in Hiroshima with Nippon Ham leading 5-2.

The Central League leads this year 24-20-7 at approximately the half-way mark, while being outscored 211-197. The Chunichi Dragons lead the interleague standings 6-1-2, with the CL’s last-place club, the DeNA BayStars, right behind at 5-2-2.

The BayStars’ win over the Hawks knocked SoftBank out of the PL lead, preventing Friday’s opener at Koshien, where the Hanshin Tigers will play SoftBank, from being a clash between league leaders.

Giants 4, Lions 4

At Tokyo Dome, Yomiuri right-hander Seishu Hatake loaded the bases with two outs and veteran Takumi Kuriyama tied the game with a two-run single. Hiroyuki Nakajima and Ginjiro Sumitani staked Angel Sanchez to a four-run lead. Sanchez left with two outs and two on in the sixth after surrendering a leadoff homer to Tomoya Mori.

Yomiuri shredded its former ace Tetsuya Utsumi (-) in his return to his old park, with Giants catcher Sumitani getting in the big blow. Going to the plate to the sound of Utsumi’s old walk-up music, Sumitani, whose free-agent signing by the Giants allowed Seibu to grab Utsumi as compensation, belted a two-run second-inning homer against his old team that made it 3-0.

Utsumi allowed only three run over two innings in which he walked four and surrendered five hits, including a home run, thanks to two double plays and a Giants runner stumbling on the bases.

Career minor leaguer Seiji Kawagoe homered for the Lions in the seventh to narrow the gap.

Giants-Lions highlights.

Eagles 4, Swallows 2

At Tokyo’s Jingu Stadium, Daichi Suzuki doubled, walked, scored one run and singled in the go-ahead run as Rakuten came from behind to beat Yakult. The Swallows took the lead on third-inning homers by Yasutaka Shiomi, his seventh, and Norichika Aoki, his first, off Ryota Takinaka (4-2).

Cy Sneed (1-1) allowed the tying runs to score in the fourth, when he issued two walks, allowed two singles and hit a batter. Hiroto Kobukata singled with one out in the sixth, stole second and scored on Suzuki’s single. Kobukata scored an insurance run in the ninth with his second home run. Takinaka went five innings, and the bullpen did the rest of the heavy lifting to close it out with Yuki Matsui striking out three of the four batters he faced to record his 16th save.

BayStars 4, Hawks 3

At Yokohama Stadium, new SoftBank import Colin Rea got a rude awakening in his Japan debut, surrendering a three-run first-inning home run to Tyler Austin, his ninth, but allowed just three more base runners through six, when he left with the game tied 3-3.

Yuya Sakamoto worked six scoreless innings for DeNA, but Nobuhiro Matsuda tagged Edwin Escobar for a three-run homer in the seventh that took Rea off the hook for the loss. Rea threw 74 pitches, walked one and hit one while striking out five, but was pulled for a pinch-hitter after Matsuda’s seventh home run.

Reliever Keisuke Izumi (1-2) surrendered a run on doubles by Neftali Soto and Yamato Maeda. Yasuaki Yamasaki got past the heart of the Hawks order in the eighth, and Kazuki Mishima closed it out in the ninth to earn his ninth save.

Dragons 4, Marines 3

At Nagoya‘s Vantelin Dome, Chunichi tied the game 3-3 in the seventh inning, Toshiki Abe plating Dayan Viciedo with a squeeze bunt, Yohei Oshima homered off Yuki Karakawa (3-2) in the bottom of the eighth and Katsuki Matayoshi worked the ninth to record his fifth save.

Naomichi Donoue, starting for the first time this season, homered in the first, while journeyman reserve Masataka Iryo homered for the first time in five years to make it 2-0 in the second against Fumiya Motomae.

Akiyoshi Katsuno allowed a run through six for the Dragons, who blew the lead in the seventh with Hiroto Fuku on the mound. Katsuya Kakunaka drew a leadoff walk, and Brandon Laird followed with his 12th home run.

Buffaloes 7, Tigers 3

At Koshien Stadium, 19-year-old rookie Orix shortstop Kotaro Kurebayashi’s third home run of the season, a two-run shot, broke a 3-3 eighth-inning tie off reliever Suguru Iwazaki (1-3).

The Tigers jumped in front on a two-run first-inning Yusuke Oyama off Sachiya Yamasaki and rookie Teruaki Sato hit his 14th homer in the second. Masataka Yoshida doubled and scored in the Buffaloes’ two-run fourth off Raul Alcantara, who allowed three runs over seven innings. Orix leadoff man Shuhei Fukuda walked and scored in the fourth and singled in the tying run in the fifth.

Carp vs Fighters, rained out

At Hiroshima’s Mazda Stadium, the rain washed out a game Chihiro Kaneko might have won with Nippon Ham leading Hiroshima 5-2 after Kaneko singled in two runs.

Interleague

Starting pitchers

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

Cristopher Crisostomo Mercedes (-) vs Takahide Ikeda (2-5, 2.85)

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

Masanori Ishikawa (0-1, 3.60) vs Kona Takahashi (5-0, 2.77)

BayStars vs Marines: Yokohama Stadium 5:45 pm, 4:45 am EDT

Masaya Kyoyama (0-2, 7.43) vs Shota Suzuki (1-3, 3.30)

Dragons vs Buffaloes: Vantelin Dome (Nagoya) 5:45 pm, 4:45 am EDT

Yudai Ono (2-3, 3.50) vs Yoshinobu Yamamoto (4-5, 2.39)

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

Koyo Aoyagi (3-2, 2.50) vs Shuta Ishikawa (3-3, 2.74)

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

Yuta Nakamura (0-2, 11.00) vs Hideaki Wakui (5-3, 3.75)

Active roster moves 6/3/2021

Deactivated players can be re-activated from 6/13

Central League

Activated

GiantsP59Toyoki Tanaka
CarpC27Tsubasa Aizawa
CarpIF51Kaito Kozono
SwallowsP54Cy Sneed

Dectivated

GiantsP62Kai Yokogawa
CarpC32Yuta Shirahama
CarpOF55Ryuhei Matsuyama

Pacific League

Activated

HawksP26Colin Rea
MarinesP49Fumiya Motomae
MarinesOF31Tsuyoshi Sugano
LionsP27Tetsuya Utsumi
FightersP19Chihiro Kaneko
BuffaloesP11Sachiya Yamasaki

Dectivated

HawksP40Kazuki Sugiyama
MarinesIF44Seiya Inoue
FightersP36Drew VerHagen