Tag Archives: Hiroya Miyagi

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NPB news: Sept. 4, 2022

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Sunday saw Seibu and SoftBank, who between them have won five of the last six Pacific League pennants continue their Fukuoka brawl with Hawks ace Kodai Senga going against Dietrich Enns, while last year’s champs, the Orix Buffaloes looked for a sweep in Chiba after starting the day trailing second-place Seibu on winning percentage.

Each month this time, John E. Gibson and I go over players who we think are either deserving of winning one of their league’s two monthly awards, for top pitcher and top batter, or whom we guess will be picked.

To that end I don’t recall a batter dominating a month quite like Munetaka Murakami did. He led the CL in runs 30, hits 33, HRs 12, total bases 74, RBI 25, walks 25, batting average .440, OBP 588 and slug .987.

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Baseball, Free, News

NPB news: Aug. 20, 2022

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On Saturday in Japan, Orix’s Elmore Leonard gang stole the Lions lunch money, while Munetaka Murakami continues to swing for the fences and beyond.

The home run was Murakami’s 148th, moving him past Kazuhiro Kiyohara on the list of career home runs by a 22-year-old. He is now second on the list and 30 behind Kiyohara for career homers by a 23-year-old, and third behind Kiyohara (212) and Sadaharu Oh (180) for career homers by a 24-year-old.

If you want a refresher course on every overgeneralization attributed to Japanese baseball, have a listen to Ben Verlander does Japanese baseball. Verlander is currently in Japan marveling at the game we know and love, and I guess it’s kind of fun to remember what it was like the first time we saw it.

Let’s get to the games shall we?

Saturday’s games

Buffaloes 6, Lions 0: At Seibu Dome, the Lions got run over by the 8:20 to Yuma, as the Elmore Leonard gang, Yuma Mune and Yuma Tongu, rode again to back the eight shutdown innings from Hiroya Miyagi (8-6), lifting the defending champs to within 1-1/2 games of the first-place Lions.

Continue reading NPB news: Aug. 20, 2022 →