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