The new playoffs are here and surprise, surprise, I was at a ballpark, where I got to see Carter Stewart Jr. and Roki Sasaki square off. It wasn’t quite a fair fight, but Sasaki, who has been slowly recovering his fitness since he developed a fever on Sept. 24, was as good as he’s ever been.
There was another game in Hiroshima, an 11-inning nail-biter, and we have two elimination games Sunday. Man this is fun.
Saturday’s games
Carp 3, Deniers 2, 11 innings: At New Hiroshima Citizens Stadium, Toshiro Miyazaki hit a two-run homer for the Yokohammers after five scoreless innings between Hiroshima’s Hiroki Tokoda and DeNA’s Katsuki Azuma. Ryosuke Kikuchi reached on a one-out single in the home half and scored on a Ryoma Nishikawa sac fly, and then tied it in the eighth with a squeeze bunt after Azuma walked Matt Davidson to lead off the inning.
J.B. Wendelken, who has said Hiroshima’s mound is a tricky one for him, surrendered an 11th-inning leadoff double to Shota Dobayashi before Shogo Akiyama won it with a two-out single.
Nik Turley also surrendered a leadoff double in the top of the inning, but stranded the go-ahead run to earn the win. The Carp will send Masato Morishita to what Wendelken calls their “double mound” Sunday, against Shota Imanaga, who could be pitching in his final game for DeNA.
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