Tag Archives: Gregory Polanco

NPB news: June 4, 2022

With 66 of 108 interleague games done, the Pacific League’s prospects for winning the most games have darkened after two straight 1-5 days in the Central League’s parks. I’m now projecting a 56-52 CL interleague triumph. That could shift, of course, considering 36 of the remaining 42 games are in PL parks.

On Saturday, the CL got big games at the plate from Munetaka Murakami, Shugo Maki, a huge start from Koyo Aoyagi, and a lot of good relief work from the Swallows’, Dragons’ and Giants’ bullpens. Then there were the Hiroshima Carp.

Saturday’s games

Giants 2, Marines 1: At Tokyo Dome, C.C. Mercedes (5-1) allowed a run on seven hits over 7-1/3 innings in which he struck out six, Takuya Wakuhara stranded the tying runner in the eighth, and rookie Taisei Ota worked a 1-2-3 ninth for his 20th save.

Continue reading NPB news: June 4, 2022

NPB news: June 3, 2022

It was a wild Friday night in Japanese pro baseball, in which two pitchers drove in the winning runs for their teams, Roki Sasaki looked more comfortable hitting than pitching, there was a huge comeback in which the three home runs hit by one player were nearly secondary.

Let’s get straight to the games, including a list of all the pitchers who have hit interleague home runs.

Friday’s games

Tigers 9, Fighters 7: At Koshien Stadium, Yusuke Oyama hit three home runs for the second time in his career, and became the second CL player with a home run hat-trick in interleague this year after Yakult’s Yasutaka Shiomi did it on May 27 against Rakuten.

Oyama also walked and scored more runs than his three solo homers drove in as Hanshin overturned a six-run deficit.

Continue reading NPB news: June 3, 2022