Tag Archives: Kodai Senga

Baseball, News, Paid Content

NPB games, news of June 28, 2019

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League play resumed in Japan on Friday with four games. All six Pacific League teams were in action, while the Hiroshima Carp, who fell out of first place during interleague were in Yokohama in the Central League’s only game.

Pacific League

Hawks 7, Fighters 5

At Sapporo Dome, Kodai Senga and Kohei Arihara, the two hottest PL pitchers from the start of the season, showed some superb pitches, but were inconsistent in their location in a pitcher’s duel that turned out nothing like the announcers promised in the buildup.

Senga walked four and struck out a season-low five and gave up a bunch of hard-hit balls that allowed him to only give up one run over six innings.

Arihara, who started the season as a machine, getting everybody to swing and miss at his changeup, also gave up some shots while walking three and striking out four as he allowed three runs over six innings.

Here are the Hawks, Fighters highlights.

Marines 6, Eagles 5

At Rakuten Seimei Park, Rakuten had to call on closer Yuki Matsui, who did not see action on Tuesday because they wanted to give him six days off before pitching again perhaps?

Anyway, the lefty couldn’t find the strike zone. He got the first two batters out after falling behind but walked the next three. Afterward he said, “I should have been tougher with the bases loaded.”

Here are Marines, Eagles highlights.

Buffaloes 4, Lions 0

At Metlife Dome, Yoshinobu Yamamoto struck out 11 and walked two to win a tight pitchers’ duel with the Lions’ Tatsuya Ishii, who allowed one run over eight innings. It was the 20-year-old Yamamoto’s first career shutout and his first win since May 28.

Here are the Buffaloes-Lions highlights.

Central League

BayStars 13, Carp 3

At Yokohama Stadium, Jose Lopez and Yoshitomo Tsutsugo ruined my story about Alejandro Mejia’s first big game of the season after getting promoted back from Hiroshima’s farm team.

Lopez and Tsutsugo each belted a pair of homers while headline writers discarded themes such as “BayStars drop bombs on Hiroshima,” while Neftali Soto, last year’s CL champ, hit his league-leading 23rd home run.

Alejandro Mejia

My minor league season records go back to 1991, and during that span only eight players have hit 19 or more home runs in a Western League season. The WL is a notorious pitcher’s league with huge parks and low averages. Of those eight, four have become certified power hitters in NPB, Takahiro Okada, Nobuhiko Matsunaka, Kenji Jojima and Xavier Batista. Batista probably had the most impressive run of any of those guys, hitting 21 in 177 at-bats two years ago.

Mejia hit 20 last year in 300 plate appearances and joined the Carp first team at the end of interleague having hit 19 in 201 at-bats this spring in the minors.

In Friday’s game, Mejia, playing third with Batista at first, went 3-for-4 with a home run. So that’s a start after going hitless in three at-bats in Wednesday’s interleague finale against Rakuten.

Baseball, News

Stewart hopeful others will follow

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Carter Stewart not only has high expectations for his next six years in Japan, but he hopes he is the first of many American baseball players to turn pro on this side of the Pacific. On Monday, just hours before Major League Baseball’s June draft that he skipped out in order to sign with the SoftBank Hawks, Stewart met the press in Fukuoka.

“There are a lot of reasons why I wanted to come over here, but a big thing is the atmosphere, the quality of baseball, the facilities,” said at a press conference. “Those are some of the key points, when I got here that showed me they were top notch, that they were high-class grade baseball. That’s the real reason I chose to play over here.”

The opportunity was made possible by the Atlanta Braves lowering their signing bonus offer to him last year and by the huge gap between what MLB teams are willing to pay amateurs up front and what Japanese teams can gain from those players’ services. Japan also offers the possibility that he could enter MLB as a free agent after the 2024 season, at least two years earlier than he could hope to reach that status in the majors.

Instead of watching minor league teammates struggle to exist and survive on sub-poverty wages, Stewart will be among people who are housed and paid relatively well in a structured, clean and safe environment.

“The way with the baseball is now in the States, more amateurs at least should give this a try… Anybody who plays baseball, they want a chance to play high-quality baseball,” he said.

“In the future, I would hope some more amateur players from the U.S. would want to come over here, just because. From what I’ve seen, I only have great things to say. I don’t know if more will follow, but I hope that someday more guys from the States will come.”

Meanwhile, according to Kyodo News, Hawks GM Sugihiko Mikasa denied reports from the United States that Stewart would be able to make use of the posting system to enter MLB prior to the conclusion of his six-year-contract.

Posting Stewart would pose a problem for the Hawks, who have denied the request of their best pitcher, Kodai Senga, to make use of the posting system.