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NPB wrap 5-11-21

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Giants 4, BayStars 2

At Yokohama Stadium, an entertaining game was made more so by a single out in a scoreless inning with no runners on base, when DeNA BayStars reliever Edwin Escobar finished the seventh inning by retiring a former teammate on the friendliest putout you’ll see today.

Yomiuri got a leg up in the starting-shortstop-out-injured-after-a-head-first-slide series, after both Giants captain Hayato Sakamoto and BayStars shortstop Toshihiko Kuramoto were sidelined over the weekend. Hiroaki Wakabayashi, who threw out a runner at the plate in the second inning, broke a 2-2 tie in the ninth of incumbent DeNA closer Kazuki Mishima, who surrendered another to Naoki Yoshikawa – who started for the Giants at short.

Takayuki Kajitani and Zelous Wheeler put the visitors up with no-out doubles in the first off Shinichi Onuki. Tyler Austin hit his sixth home run in 85 at-bats this season in the first, off Shosei Togo to tie it. Justin Smoak reached the seats in the fourth with his second home run, and Austin tied it in the fifth with an RBI single after a leadoff walk and a sacrifice, when Togo stranded two to prevent more runs.

Wheeler was praised as a No. 2 hitter by Dave Okubo and Hiroki Nomura because he was willing to go to the opposite field – as evidenced by his first-inning double off the right-field wall, and his intelligence: two of the attributes attached to ideal No. 2 hitters, smarts and a willingness to not just pull the ball (going for selfish home runs).

Togo walked five and allowed five hits, but just two runs over six innings, while Onuki struck out seven, walked two and gave up five hits.

The game appeared headed for a tie after Escobar’s zero in the seventh and former closer Yasuaki Yamasaki’s scoreless eighth before Mishima let it get away. Giants lefty Kota Nakagawa earned his first save.

Tigers 4, Dragons 4

At Koshien Stadium, Jefry Marte singled in a first-inning run off Shinnosuke Ogasawara, who allowed three runs over six. Marte drew a leadoff walk and scored in Hanshin’s two-run fourth, when Teruaki Sato doubled on a ball Mike Gerber misread at the right-field wall and scored and Mel Rojas Jr., KBO’s 2020 RBI leader, got his first in Japan with a groundout.

Dayan Viciedo singled to lead off Chunichi’s second and scored on Shuhei Takahashi’s first home run, a kind of awkward shot that somehow carried out at Koshien off Yuki Nishi. Takahashi walked and scored in the fourth on Takuya Kinoshita’s third home run off a Nishi mistake.

The Tigers came back to tie it in the seventh. Daisuke Sobue, who’d lost his setup job allowed a two-out infield single, and lefty Hiroto Fuku allowed the run to score on a walk and a Kento Itohara single. Robert Suarez stopped the Dragons in the ninth, and Raidel Martinez did it to the Tigers in the home half to seal the tie, with the help of a botched sacrifice, that cost Hanshin a runner in scoring position with no outs.

Buffaloes 9, Fighters 1

At Tokyo Dome, the Orix Buffaloes hammered their former ace, Chihiro Kaneko (0-2) for six runs over 3-1/3 innings, while 19-year-old rookie southpaw Hiroya Miyagi (4-0) struck out nine over eight innings while allowing a run on four hits and no walks.

Yutaro Sugimoto hit a massive two-run first-inning home run, his eighth, and enigmatic utility man Kenshi Sugiya hit a solo homer in the home half for Nippon Ham. A Masataka Yoshida double and a Sugimoto broken-bat sac fly pushed across two more runs and the Buffaloes never looked back.

Eagles 3, Lions 3

At Sendai’s Rakuten Seimei Park, former Seibu ace Takayuki Kishi continued to struggle, the right-hander, without a win since April 6, allowed three runs over five innings, the same figures posted by new Lions import Matt Dermody in his second outing.

A Tomoya Mori two-run homer, his fifth, opened the scoring in the first, but Rakuten tied it on an assortment of bad pitches and good swings. Hiroaki Shimauchi doubled in two and added an RBI single in the third. Cory Spangenberg’s fourth-inning single tied it, but Alan Busenitz caught him looking to end the sixth with two on.

Seibu’s Ryosuke Moriwaki pitched out of a seventh-inning jam by retiring Hideto Asamura. An error and a walk opened the door for the Lions but Yuki Matsui struck out two batters to preserve the tie, and Reed Garrett ended the game with three straight swinging strikeouts. Lions setup man Kaima Taira, the PL’s 2020 rookie of the year, worked a 1-2-3 eighth on nine pitches for his 20th straight game without allowing a run.

Marines 4, Hawks 1

At Fukuoka’s PayPay Dome, Lotte’s Brandon Laird hit his fourth and fifth home runs, Kota Futaki (2-2) allowed a run over six innings, Naoya Masuda saved his ninth game.

Shota Takeda (2-2) allowed four runs over seven innings on seven hits and a walk while striking out six. Hawks reliever Kazuki Sugimoto walked three in a scoreless eighth, and Carter Stewart Jr. improved on that in the ninth with two walks and two strikeouts in a scoreless ninth.

Starting pitchers

Wednesday will see a pair of import pitchers make their season debuts, as the Seibu Lions’ Zach Neal takes on Takahiro Norimoto and the Rakuten Eagles, while big Chunichi Dragons right-hander Yariel Rodriguez will try to improve on his impressive 2020 season.

Pacific League

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

Takayuki Kato (2-0, 2.73) vs Yoshinobu Yamamoto (3-3, 1.92)

Eagles vs Lions: Rakuten Seimei Park Miyagi 2 pm, 1 am EDT

Takahiro Norimoto (2-1, 2.72) vs Zach Neal (-)

Hawks vs Marines: PayPay Dome 6 pm, 5 am EDT

Tsuyoshi Wada (2-2, 4.15) vs Daiki Iwashita (3-2, 2.57)

Central League

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

Kazuto Taguchi (1-2, 4.02) vs Masato Morishita (3-3, 2.14)

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

Haruhiro Hamaguchi (2-3, 3.55) vs Yuki Takahashi (5-0, 1.71)

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

Koyo Aoyagi (2-2, 2.13) vs Yariel Rodriguez (-)

Active roster moves 5/11/2021

Deactivated players can be re-activated from 5/21

Central League

Activated

GiantsP11Ryuta Heinai
GiantsP20Shosei Togo
GiantsIF32Taishi Hirooka
GiantsIF66Kazuya Katsuki
BayStarsIF0Daisuke Nakai
BayStarsOF63Taiki Sekine

Dectivated

None

Pacific League

Activated

HawksP18Shota Takeda
FightersP57Toshihiro Sugiura
BuffaloesIF4Shuhei Fukuda

Dectivated

FightersP29Kazutomo Iguchi
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Tanaka’s 2nd start

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On Saturday, Masahiro Tanaka pitched in Sendai, and Carter Stewart Jr. made his second relief outing, so I figured I’d write about their games a bit.

Tanaka returned to Sendai, pitching there for the first time since he saved Game 7 of the 2013 Japan Series one night after he suffered a complete-game loss in Game 6. Tanaka’s second regular-season start, against the Seibu Lions, was a mirror image of his debut a week earlier against the Nippon Ham Fighters.

In that game, he couldn’t locate his fastball, and the Fighters hitters basically waited for him to miss with it in the zone, and hit a pair of home runs off him. He responded by not throwing the fastball, and threw only three of them in his 13-pitch first inning on Saturday in Sendai.

It looked, however, like he’d solved his fastball control issues, but had trouble locating his splitter and slider. The Lions’ hitters were apparently looking for the splitter and hit a couple of good ones. From the fourth inning, he began using his slider and cutter to set up his fastball, and it was essentially game over.

Before the game, there was talk of him throwing around 100 pitches, but Tanaka left the mound after throwing just 68 in six innings. Although he started throwing few fastballs, in the end, Tanaka threw his four-seamer 34 percent of the time — the same as he had a week earlier.

Manager Kazuhisa Ishii was asked about Tanaka’s outing.

“I didn’t think he looked that good at the start, but as he showed more variation halfway through. That got him going, and allowed him to establish a rhythm,” he said.

“You’d have to ask him about how he felt coming back, but as for pressure, his mission here is to meet expectations, and I’m sure he’s happy about meeting them in such a diligent fashion.”

“He’s got his 100th win (in Japan), but that’s sort of expected. He’ll do more, reach higher numbers in Japan and in the majors. He’s such an extraordinary athlete.”

“As for his pitch count, he worked well and he did go six innings, and we decided that was a good place to cut him off today and hand it over to the bullpen.”

Tanaka pitching log

Key: f-fastball, s-slider, k-split, v-curve, c-cutter, hanging pitches marked with an asterisk.

1st inning
  1. Wakabayashi s,s,s,f,k,s* —hangs and lined to center good catch by CF Tatsumi
  2. Genda f,s,f,s —swinging K
  3. Mori v,k,k — weak grounder 4-3

2nd inning

  1. Nakamura v,f,k* — hangs splitter lined into LF corner, single
  2. Kuriyama s* — hanging slider lined to 1st $mart play by Dixon 3DP
  3. Takeda f,f,s — swinging K

3rd inning

  1. Spangenberg f,k,s,s — backfoot slider hits back foot on bounce after video request.
  2. Wu k*,f,k,s,s,k — Spangenberg steals on 0-1 pitch, good swing on split RBI single
  3. Yamada f — sacrifice 1-3, 1 out
  4. Wakabayashi k,f,f,fs — good swing on slider away line to RF, 2 outs
  5. Genda f,f,f,k — another good swing on a splitter, infield single, R13, 2 outs
  6. Mori k – Mori grounds splitter to second, 4-3g

4th inning

  1. Nakamura c,c,f — 3 foul fly
  2. Kuriyama k*,f — 7F
  3. Takeda s,f,k — Swinging K out of zone

5th inning

  1. Spangenberg s,s,s,f,c,k — 6-3g
  2. Wu k,s,s,k — 9F
  3. Yamada c,c,s,k — Swinging K

6th inning

  1. Wakabayashi f — 3 Foul fly
  2. Genda k*,s — 4-3g
  3. Okada s,s — 1-3g

Carter Stewart Jr.

Stewart, who made his debut in the final inning of a 7-1 Hawks win against the Seibu Lions a week earlier, got some meaningful mound experience in the fifth inning on Saturday with the Hawks holding a 6-5 lead against the Marines in Chiba.

He allowed two runs on four walks and a double, and struck out one, but it was hardly a disaster. This inning could easily have gone the other way, and when the broadcast crew crowed about Stewart’s potential, they weren’t talking out of their butts.

The leadoff hitter, Hisanori Yasuda, hit a flare that bounced over left fielder Yurisbel Gracial for a fluke double. With one out, he missed badly on four pitches to Koki Yamaguchi. He threw some good pitches to the next batter, particularly his change before walking him, too, to load the bases.

Stewart struck out pinch-hitter Tsuyoshi Sugano, then the weird stuff really began.

Catcher Takuya Kai began calling for fastballs on the outside corner that Kengo Iwashita, umpiring in his 113th top-flight game, had called earlier in the inning. Stewart hit the glove twice, and hopped a bit on the mound when Iwashita saw these pitches as balls.

Kai moved his glove over the plate and Stewart missed it, 3-0. Another target over the plate and Stewart caught the outside corner, a better pitch than the first two and a strike, 3-1. Another target over the plate, and Stewart was over the inner half, but Iwashita didn’t call it and the tying run scored.

At that point, it looked like Stewart lost confidence in his mechanics as he went from missing ever so little to a lot. Five more pitches to veteran leadoff hitter Takashi Ogino and the Marines had the lead and Stewart was gone.