Wednesday brought us a showdown between last year’s PL rookie of the year, Orix’s Shumpeita Yamashita, and last year’s top pitching prize in the draft, Seibu’s Natsuki Takeuchi. We also got home runs from DeNA’s former import power duo, Tyler Austin and Neftali Soto, and a no-hit bid.

Due to rain across the country, every game played without benefit of a roof was rained out. In other words, NPB picked a good day to have five of its six major league games rain-proofed.

Wednesday’s games

Lions 3, Buffaloes 0: At Seibu Half Dome, catcher Ginjiro Sumitani is still playing baseball, back with the team he began his career with after three seasons each with the Giants and Eagles. He shepherded highly touted rookie lefty Takeuchi through seven scoreless innings in his pro debut during which he walked two and allowed a single.

Seibu scored in the first off Yamashita, who struck out the first two batters he faced in dominant fashion before Shuta Tonosaki walked, stole second and scored on a Jesus Aguilar single. Yamashita walked off the mound with no outs in the sixth, after running his walk total to seven with three straight to open the inning. Yamashita was charged with two runs over six-plus innings.