Tag Archives: Hirokazu Sawamura

NPB news: May 30, 2023

Japan’s annual interleague session started Tuesday with the Central League on the road for the first three-game series. On Opening Night, pitchers Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Shoki Murakami, Shota Imanaga and Yuji Nishino showing their stuff off to the other league, and 23-year-old Chusei Mannami won a battle of the ages in Hokkaido to take over the Pacific League home run lead.

In case you missed it, I published my research about the Yomiuri Giants’ remarkable record in getting called strikes in 0-0 and 1-0 counts from 2009 to 2019.

Tuesday’s games

Tigers 3, Lions 1: At Seibu Dome, Shoki Murakami (5-1) returned to Seibu two years to the day after he got shelled in his pro debut. After two years of dominating the Western League, the 24-year-old returned and showed Seibu a thing or two, striking out nine, walking none and allowing a run over eight innings.

“I didn’t like this ballpark, but I do now,” he said after Hanshin won its ninth straight, the team’s longest win streak in 16 years.

Triples by Koji Chikamoto and Takumu Nakano, and a Sheldon Neuse RBI groundout made it 2-0 in the first, and Neuse singled in an insurance run after the Lions made it a one-run game, and Atsuki Yuasa worked a 1-2-3 ninth for his seventh save.

Continue reading NPB news: May 30, 2023

NPB news: April 8, 2023

Sheldon Neuse makes another big catch, Matt Davidson strikes again, Hayato Sakamoto gets a hit and Nippon Ham gets a win in Saturday’s action across Nippon Professional Baseball.

There are also a couple of notes that failed to get in yesterday’s blog about a pair of Samurai Japan players, and I’ll start with those.

Hiroya Miyagi, who didn’t see a lot of action with the national team in the WBC, entered Friday’s game to Atsushi Nomi’s walk-on theme. The former Hanshin Tigers ace, who retired last autumn, spent the final two years of his career with Orix, and was working the game for radio.

Hiroya Miyagi.

Samurai Japan’s pitchers are now 7-0 in the regular season between MLB and NPB.

Hiroshima’s Ryoji Kuribayashi, pitching in his first game since lower-back tightness knocked him off the roster before Pool B started in Tokyo, earned his first save Friday, and compared it to his 2020 rookie of the year season.

“The adrenaline was pumping like it hadn’t since I was a rookie,” Kuribayashi said after ending the game by striking out former teammate Hisayoshi Chono with the tying runs on base.

Saturday’s games

Carp 6, Giants 3: At New Hiroshima Citizens Stadium, Matt Davidson hit a solo homer, his third, off Giants starter Foster Griffin (1-1) in the first inning, and Ryan McBroom doubled in a run in Hiroshima’s three-run fourth. Shogo Akiyama tripled in a pair of runs to make it 6-0 in the fifth and chase Griffin. Davidson has now had an RBI in five straight games.

Continue reading NPB news: April 8, 2023