Tag Archives: Dayan Viciedo

NPB news: June 2, 2023

An approaching typhoon washed out unroofed games in Kansai and Kanto on the first night for Central League teams to host games, leaving just Tokyo Dome, Nagoya and Hiroshima as the only interleague venues.

In Hiroshima, 42-year-old Tsuyoshi Wada started in the hunt for his 27th career interleague victory that would tie him with 43-year-old fellow lefty Masanori Ishikawa, but he was hit on his pitching hand by a line drive off the bat of Ryan McBroom and exited the game early.

“I’m not interested in those numbers, but if it makes others happy, then I’m good with it,” said Wada, who had won his previous three decisions with good run support keeping him from a loss against Orix on May 4.

We also learned Friday that Roki Sasaki’s next start for the Lotte Marines is set for Sunday.

Friday’s games

Dragons 2, Buffaloes 1, 11 innings: At Nagoya Dome, Yuki Okabayashi tripled to open the bottom of the first and scored on a Taisuke Yamaoka wild pitch. Orix tied it against Shinnosuke Ogasawara in the third on doubles by Tomoya Noguchi and rookie Tokumasa Chano, both of whom contributed good catches in the outfield. Ogasawara went seven innings and Yamaoka six.

Jacob Waguespack (2-3) got two outs before rookie Hiroki Fukunaga singled, Dayan Viciedo walked, Okabyashi singled to load the bases and rookie Kaito Muramatsu singled in the winning run.

Fighters 8, Giants 2: At Tokyo Dome, submarine right-hander Kenya Suzuki (5-2) allowed two runs in 5-2/3 innings, Chusei Mannami reached bases his first four times and scored three runs, while Ariel Martinez had an RBI double and a two-run homer for the Fighters. Two nights after his first major league home runs, Gosuke Kato popped his third, and new Fighter Alen Hanson added a pinch-hit homer in the eighth.

Hawks 5, Carp 1: At New Hiroshima Citizens Stadium, with Wada out of the game, Yugo Bando (2-0) pitched out of a second-inning jam and retired seven of the last eight batters he faced. He left with a 1-0 lead courtesy of Akira Nakamura. The Hawks veteran went 4-for-4, and his third-inning single brought in the first run.

Hiroshima native Yuki Yanagita made it 3-0 in the sixth with his ninth home run and singled in the Hawks’ two-run McBroom, who was credited with an infield single when he knocked Wada out of the game, hit his fifth homer in the bottom of the inning.

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NPB news: Sept. 17, 2022

It’s Saturday and was a rare night out with the missus, did some dancing, and said hi to some friends. It was fun, but full disclosure: It meant missing almost all of the games, so I won’t be able to report on anything I saw through careful observation of whole games because for the most part I didn’t.

There was some fun stuff, however, and

Yoshinobu Yamamoto stood in the way of the Hawks lowering their magic number, while the Chunichi Dragons are once more playing the role of the troll under the bridge the Yakult Swallows need to cross. The DeNA BayStars, meanwhile, were playing THEIR kryptonite team, the Hiroshima Carp.

The Rakuten Eagles sent Masahiro Tanaka to the mound with a chance to put Rakuten into third place, while the Hansin Tigers sent Yuki Nishi against the Yomiuri Giants’ Shosei Togo in their battle for the CL’s third-place spot in a game decided by home runs.

Elsewhere, a full crowd nearly brought one Fighters player to tears, while Chunichi skipper Kazuyoshi Tatsunami spills on Munetaka Murakami‘s failures.

Pitching metrics

The last two weeks I’ve been analyzing pitches, with batters’ runs created per pitch a key measure. I’m sticking with runs created per pitch but have switched to a fielding-independent model, that prevents the anomaly of Manabu Mima’s 85 mph fastball getting the highest rating of any starting pitcher’s fastball in Japan. It doesn’t miss many bats, doesn’t get called for strikes an unusual amount and is not hard to put in play, but when it has been put in play, very few have failed to find gloves this season.

With this new tweak, Hanshin reliever Atsuki Yuasa’s heater ranks as the most effective pitch thrown 400 or more times this season through Saturday, with batters creating .0113 runs per pitch he throws, to edge out Roki Sasaki’s .0117.

Let’s get to the games, shall we?

Buffaloes 2, Hawks 0: At Osaka Dome, Yamamoto (14-5) won a pitchers’ duel with Yugo Bando (2-3), with both starters allowing four hits over the distance. Yamamoto allowed four singles and a walk over nine while striking out seven. Bando Keita Nakagawa’s first-inning home run and walked three, two of which allowed Orix to load the bases in the third and score an insurance run on a Yuma Tongu sac fly.

Continue reading NPB news: Sept. 17, 2022