Tag Archives: Jose Marmolejos

NPB News: June 5, 2022

Kosei Yoshida, the darling of the 2018 national high school championship for pitching Akita’s tiny Kanaashi Nogyo High School to the final, where he got trampled after throwing his arm into hell’s heat treatment for five games, returned to Koshien as a regular season starter for the first time as a pro on Sunday.

The Fighters had not been having much luck with their homecomings this weekend in their interleague bottom-feeders challenge series against the Hanshin Tigers, with whom manager Tsuyoshi Shinjo began his pro career as an infielder 30 or so years ago. Shinjo got a three-home run salute from Yusuke Oyama on Friday, as the Tigers’ first baseman dominated the series.

Well, let’s get to it.

Friday’s games

Tigers 8, Fighters 3: At Koshien Stadium, Yoshida (1-1) got out of a first-inning jam but couldn’t escape middle-of-the-order trouble the second time around. Tigers pitcher Masashi Ito (2-2) faced just nine batters over three innings before singling to open the third. Two-out Koji Chikamoto and Teruaki Sato singles made it 1-0 before Oyama’s three-run homer, his 13th.

Continue reading NPB News: June 5, 2022

NPB news: April 5, 2022

The Hanshin Tigers and SoftBank Hawks entered Tuesday with their season-opening streaks intact on Tuesday, when a quartet of struggling hitters from last year’s league champs appeared to have found their rhythm, Masahiro Tanaka looked like his old self and Chris Gittens‘ Japan debut was a brief one.

Ready? Let’s go!

Tuesday’s games

Hawks 6, Buffaloes 3: At Fukuoka Dome, SoftBank lost their starting pitcher, Shuta Ishikawa, after the first inning, rookie Shuto Ogata (1-0), yet another guy who turned pro with the Hawks on a developmental contract, pitched two scoreless innings despite allowing the Buffaloes to load the bases in the second to earn his first win. The win was SoftBank’s eighth straight to start the season.

Ishikawa had poor command from the get-go. With one run in on a Masataka Yoshida double and one out in the first, the game was paused for 6-1/2 minutes while he got treatment after walking the bases loaded. He walked Kotaro Kurebayashi to plate a second run with two outs and was replaced after the first inning.

With two out and two on in the home half of the second, Hawks leadoff man Masaki Mimori put a good swing on an unusually straight fastball from Soichiro Yamasaki (0-1) to plate Freddie Galvis and Kenta Imamiya.

Galvis led off the Hawks’ fourth with his second walk, with a sacrifice and singles from Takuya Kai, Mimori and Tatsuro Yanagimachi making it 5-2.

Continue reading NPB news: April 5, 2022