The season’s second no-hit shutout was thrown Friday, when the first time in a while, it was Roki Eve in Japan, as Lotte right-hander Roki Sasaki was named to start Saturday in Hiroshima for the first time since his May 24 outing against SoftBank. On the field Friday, there was an old-teammate showdown between a pair of former bullpen mates with the SoftBank Hawks, as DeNA sent former Hawks closer Yuito Mori out to start against converted bullpen ace Livan Moinelo.
Friday’s games:
Buffaloes 2, Giants 0: At Tokyo Ugly Dome, Kohei Azuma (2-3) bounced from four forgettable starts to throw eight shutout innings and Andres Machado recorded his third save in three straight games as Orix knocked Yomiuri into second place in the Central League behind Hiroshima
Orix took a 1-0 first-inning lead against Shosei Togo (5-3) when Giants center fielder Elier Hernandez misjudged a line drive from Masahiro Nishino and let it get over his head for a triple before Ryoma Nishikawa singled the runner in. Kotaro Kurebayashi homered in the fourth off Giants starter Shosei Togo, who floated a 1-1 slider up there like it was BP.
But Togo did well to hold Orix to two runs with Hernandez having a series of misadventures in center field.
Azuma warmed up on the sidelines ahead of the ninth so there was some surprise that he went back to the clubhouse and Machado took his place.
“I was hoping,” Azuma said. “I was supposed to start the ninth if we got a four-run lead, but it was only two.”
In his three May starts, Azuma went 0-2 and surrendered 11 runs in 20-1/3 innings. In his first June start, he worked 3-1/3 scoreless innings before receiving the required automatic ejection for hitting a batter on the helmet.
Continue reading NPB news: June 7, 2024