The weekend is going to tell us a lot about whether the Hiroshima Carp have any chance to reach the Central League playoffs. They entered Friday’s game against the Yakult Swallows with a magic number of 12 to reach the playoffs and knock the Giants out.

That shot will get a boost on Saturday, when they go head to head with Yomiuri at Tokyo Dome. The Giants started Friday with a magic number of four to clinch their fourth straight postseason berth.

The Swallows-Giants game was a bruiser, so I’ll leave that novella for the end of today’s reports. Just beware of bat flips, because Jose Osuna’s was a show-stopper.