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NPB news: July 6, 2023

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Right field appeared to be the sun field at Yokohama Stadium on Friday night, while Takayuki Kishi and Shumpeita Yamashita locked up in a battle of the ages.

Thursday’s games

Marines 7, Lions 6, 10 innings : At Tokyo Dome, Lotte’s Hisanori Yasuda, who tied the game 2-2 in the first with an RBI single, walked off the Lions with a two-out sayonara single.

Koki Yamaguchi‘s two-out two-run homer made it 4-3 Lotte in the third. Seibu’s Shohei Suzuki, who singled in a run and scored in the first, singled with one out in the fifth and scored the tying run on a David MacKinnon infield single.

The Lions jumped in front for the second time in the seventh when Takeya Nakamura doubled with two outs and scored on a Junichiro Kishi single. Ryusei Sato homered in the eighth to make it 6-4 Lions, only for Gregory Polanco to retie it with a two-run homer in the park that was his home last season with the Yomiuri Giants.

How bout some El Coffee? Gregory Polanco ties it up.

Shogo Nakamura singled, pinch-runner Koshiro Wada stole second and went to third on a throwing error. Lions manager Kazuo Matsui argued unsuccessfully that Polanco, who struck out on the play, interfered with the throw as he followed through with his swing.

Lions center fielder Kishi dutifully tried to catch Lotte in a Merkle’s boner by throwing to first to try for a force out, but Yasuda ran it out for the win.

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NPB news: June 18, 2023

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Carter Stewart Jr. made his season debut, matchup with one of the hottest pitchers in Japan right now. Roki Sasaki took his stuff to Yokohama with a chance to derail DeNA’s hopes of winning the top prize in interleague that isn’t called a championship, while a couple of former Waseda University lefties took their mutual admiration society public.

I want to apologize for posting the incorrect runs scored and allowed total from interleague yesterday. As of Sunday’s games with three left to play, the PL leads 53-50, which is normal. What is unusual is that the two leagues have scored and allowed the same number of runs.

Interleague concludes with Nippon Ham at DeNA Monday, Rakuten at Yakult Tuesday, and Chunichi at Rakuten on Wednesday. If DeNA loses, four teams will finish with 11-7 records and a tiebreak will be used to determine–and I’m not making this up–which of the teams’ .611 winning percentages is the highest winning percentage.

Sunday’s games

Deniers 6, Marines 1: At Yokohama Stadium, I saw Roki Sasaki pitch live for the second time Sunday, and his ERA in those two games is now 6.51. Don’t tell him that or in a few years when we are able to just walk up and talk to him as if he were a normal player, he might not want to talk to me.

DeNA’s Kenta Ishida walked two of the first three batters he faced but surrendered his only run in five innings on Shogo Nakamura’s fourth-inning leadoff homer. Sasaki had better command than usual, but his fastball was straight, and DeNA hitters exploited that to foul him off mercilessly, time him and then hit him well.

Shugo Maki doubled off his WBC teammate in the second and singled in Taiki Sekine in the fourth.

As @JCoskrey wrote: Shugo Maki performs the traditional dance of “I went 3-for-3 with a double, a triple and two RBIs against Roki Sasaki” in the DeNA clubhouse.

After a trip to the mound by pitching coach Tomohiro “Johnny” Kuroki, Sasaki got Maki to hit a fly to the gap on the next pitch. With the outfield in, the ball went from having a slight chance of being caught for the third out to none. Maki wound up on third, and Toshiro Miyazaki lined a straight fastball over the wall at the right-field foul pole for an opposite-field home run.

Maki also doubled to finish the day 4-for-4.

DeNA-Marines highlights
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