Two Pacific Leaguers continued on a home run tear Thursday, Seibu’s 2018 MVP Hotaka Yamakawa, and Nippon Ham’s Yuma Igawa, who’s taken full advantage of a Fighters’ home series at the Tokyo Dome launching pad.
Meanwhile, we had a huge comeback in the Central League, while the Nikkan Sports reminded us that no comebacks can be expected in the CL pennant race since all 21 teams in Japanese pro baseball history to win 20 of their first 29 game have gone on to win the pennant.
The Pacific League opened its week with Masahiro Tanaka, Yoshinobu Yamamoto and new import Burch Smith all throwing and one of those three was super, while we had a Maddux on a night with three shutouts.
The Central League schedule looks like some kind of placing playoff as the first-place Yomiuri Giants hosted the second-place Carp, the third-place Chunichi Dragons with ace Yudai Ono took on the fourth-place Yakult Swallows, while the fifth-place DeNA BayStars hosted the last-place Hanshin Tigers.
