The Pacific League opened its week with Masahiro Tanaka, Yoshinobu Yamamoto and new import Burch Smith all throwing and one of those three was super, while we had a Maddux on a night with three shutouts.

The Central League schedule looks like some kind of placing playoff as the first-place Yomiuri Giants hosted the second-place Carp, the third-place Chunichi Dragons with ace Yudai Ono took on the fourth-place Yakult Swallows, while the fifth-place DeNA BayStars hosted the last-place Hanshin Tigers.

Ready to go?