The Hanshin Tigers, whose season started under a bad star with seven straight losses, overcame a plague of errors to reach the playoffs only for their fatal flaw to do them in and bring the curtain down on Akihiro Yano’s tenure as manager.
The game was ripe with irony as Japan’s most potent slugger cleared the bases on a single that barely left his bat.
In Osaka, the Pacific League foreplay series will go on for at least another day. Orix, which tied SoftBank for the PL’s best record and won the pennant based on their better head-to-head record, lead their final stage 3-1 due to their automatic one-win advantage and wins in Games 2, and 3.
On Saturday, Orix, needing only a tie to advance a Japan Series rematch with Yakult, will send Taisuke Yamaoka to the mound against Japan’s second-oldest pitcher active pitcher, Tsuyoshi Wada.
Chunichi 2, DeNA 1, Lotte 1, Nippon Ham 1. Those are not runs but suspected cases of COVID-19 from their major league rosters. Among those were DeNA’s two-time home run champ, Neftali Soto, and Nippon Ham’s all-star third baseman Yuki James Nomura, who has been exhibiting symptoms but had yet to test positive.
They were dwarfed by the Yomiuri Giants’ toll in recent days. The team reported a total of 38 new infections, including coaches and staff, on Wednesday night, including a large chunk of their starting roster and ace pitcher Tomoyuki Sugano.
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On Thursday, the Giants announced they had suspended baseball activities after 41 players within the organization had tested positive in the past three days.
NPB also announced that it’s next commissioner will be 79-year-old Sadayuki Sakakibara, the former chairman of the Japan Business Federation and that he’ll replace the outgoing Atsushi Saito in November in one of Japan’s least important jobs.
Pacific League TV is again making things difficult, so no highlights tonight.
Thursday’s games
Buffaloes 4, Fighters 3: At Osaka Dome, Masataka Yoshida tied it with his second home run in two nights, a two-run sixth-inning shot off Cody Ponce (1-2). Yutaro Sugimoto singled, Joe McCarthy doubled and both scored on a ground ball to third, and an error by reserve infielder Takuya Kori, whose first career homer had put the Fighters up 2-0 in the fifth.
Marines 5, Lions 4: At Chiba Marine Stadium, Hiromi Oka singled in two runs in the ninth to tie it and Akito Takabe singled in the winning run as Kaima Taira (1-3), standing in for closer Taishi Masuda, blew a 4-2 lead.
Marines reliever Seiya Dohi, who pitched in just one game in the bigs last season, and hadn’t won since 2019, worked a scoreless ninth in his season debut to pick up the win.
Hawks 7, Eagles 0: At Fukuoka Dome, Kodai Senga (8-3) struck out eight over eight innings in a game that started as a tight pitchers’ duel against Rakuten veteran Takayuki Kishi (6-5).
Kenta Imamiya singled and scored the first of his three runs in the second, on a Takuya Kai double, and Yuki Yanagita opened the game u pwith a two-run fifth-inning triple.
