Kosuke Fukudome | jballallen.com

Interleague Day 8

The CL had one of its best days so far, going 3-1-2, and actually leading the PL in runs scored. The CL is now22-18-6, while scoring 180 and allowing 190.

Giants 4, Lions 3

At Tokyo Dome, Yomiuri won a six-pitcher bullpen game after Kai Yokogawa allowed two runs over three innings. Seibu’s Matt Dermody (0-2) gave up four runs over 4-2/3 innings to take the loss. Giants reserve catcher Ginjiro Sumitani scored twice against his former team, while Zelous Wheeler singled twice, scored once and drove in two. Kazuma Okamoto doubled and hit a two-run single that brought the Giants from behind in their three-run fifth.

Hotaka Yamakawa hit his sixth homer for Seibu, a two-run shot in the third, and Tomoya Mori had three hits but struck out on a pitch out of the zone in the ninth with the tying run on third against Thyago Vieira, who saved his second game.

Giants-Lions highlights

Eagles 3, Swallows 1

At Tokyo‘s Jingu Stadium, Rakuten’s Takahiro Norimoto (5-2) was striking out guys like old times, fanning 10 in six innings while allowing one run. Yakult’s Kazuto Taguchi (2-4) gave up two runs over 4-1/3 innings. Hiroaki Shimauchi’s RBI double put the Eagles ahead 1-0 in the fifth, while Takero Okajima, who contributed a single to Rakuten’s first run, completed the scoring in the eighth with his fifth home run.

Sung Chia-hao retired the heart of the Swallows order in the eighth and Yuki Matsui worked a 1-2-3 ninth to earn his 15th save.

BayStars 1, Hawks 1

At Yokohama Stadium, DeNA rookie Koo Nakagawa allowed a run over six innings, while SoftBank veteran Nao Higashihama did the same and as each team had six hits, three walks and struck out five times. Nakagawa retired Takuya Kai in the sixth with the bases loaded, and three relievers, Edwin Escobar, Yasuaki Yamasaki and Kazuki Mishima did the job from there.

Dragons 2, Marines 2

At Nagoya’s Vantelin Dome, Katsuya Kakunaka ended Lotte’s scoreless stay in Nagoya at 17 innings with a two-out two-run ninth-inning single off Katsuki Matayoshi as the Marines avoided being shut out for the second straight night. Leonys Martin got things started in the ninth with a one-out single.

Lefty Shinnosuke Ogasawara allowed two walks and two singles over seven innings while striking out seven. Marines right-hander Daiki Iwashita pitched out of one jam after another to allow just two runs over six innings. Dayan Viciedo tripled and scored a run in the sixth on a Kosuke Fukudome single.

Tigers 2, Buffaloes 1

At Koshien Stadium, Hanshin’s Fumiya Hojo, making his first start of the season, teamed up with rookie shortstop Takumu Nakano to save the Tigers’ bacon and earn a win for right-hander Takumi Akiyama (5-2). Both players made big defensive stops that allowed Akiyama to scatter eight hits and two walks while allowing just one run over 5-2/3 innings.

Rookie lefty Hiroya Miyagi (5-1) only gave Hanshin two decent scoring chances and they cashed both in with Hojo twice singling in Nakano. The bullpen was solid with Robert Suarez earning his 17th save.

Carp 3, Fighters 0

At Hiroshima’s Mazda Stadium, Hiroshima sparkplug Ryosuke Kikuchi returned from his coronavirus infection with a single and double and two runs, Yusuke Nomura scattered seven hits and two walks over 5-1/3 innings and Ryoma Nishikawa drove in all three Carp runs.

Fighters starter Takayuki Kato (3-3) allowed two runs on seven hits and a walk while striking out five. He improved to 2-for-2 at the plate in interleague and drew a walk to maintain his 1.000 on-base percentage.

Hiroshima rookie Ryoji Kuribayashi saved his 11th game, recording his 20th consecutive scoreless inning.

Starting pitchers

Interleague

Fun is in store for Thursday, when former Yomiuri Giants ace Tetsuya Utsumi starts for the Seibu Lions against his old team. In Yokohama, Colin Rea will make his Japan debut for the SoftBank Hawks.

Giants vs Lions: Tokyo Dome 5:45 pm, 4:45 am EDT

Angel Sanchez (4-3, 4.98) vs Tetsuya Utsumi (-)

Swallows vs Eagles: Jingu Stadium 5:30 pm, 4:30 am EDT

Cy Sneed (1-0, 5.79) vs Ryota Takinaka (3-2, 4.15)

BayStars vs Hawks: Yokohama Stadium 5:45 pm, 4:45 am EDT

Yuya Sakamoto (1-1, 4.60) vs Colin Rea (-)

Dragons vs Marines: Vantelin Dome (Nagoya) 5:45 pm, 4:45 am EDT

Akiyoshi Katsuno (3-3, 3.83) vs Fumiya Motomae (1-1, 8.10)

Tigers vs Buffaloes: Koshien Stadium 6 pm, 5 am EDT

Raul Alcantara (1-1, 6.94) vs Sachiya Yamasaki (1-5, 4.02)

Carp vs Fighters: Mazda Stadium 6 pm, 5 am EDT

Hiroki Tokoda (1-2, 3.98) vs Chihiro Kaneko (0-2, 4.50)

Active roster moves 6/2/2021

Deactivated players can be re-activated from 6/12

Central League

Activated

Giants	C	22	Seiji Kobayashi
Tigers	IF	26	Fumiya Hojo
BayStars	OF	00	Shumei Miyamoto
Carp	P	19	Yusuke Nomura
Carp	IF	33	Ryosuke Kikuchi

Dectivated

Giants	P	12	Rubby De La Rosa
Tigers	OF	24	Mel Rojas Jr.
BayStars	OF	8	Kazuki Kamizato
Swallows	P	48	Yuto Kanakubo

Pacific League

Activated

Marines

Tomoya Kakinuma

Dectivated

Marines	C	45	Yuito Munetsugu
Eagles	P	17	Takahiro Shiomi
Buffaloes	OF	69	Stefen Romero

Interleague Day 5 – Respect for the elderly

Sapporo Dome held a respect for the elderly promotion on Saturday giving up four hits to players 40 and over, and 44-year-old Kosuke Fukudome, Nippon Professional Basesball’s oldest active player, cashed in with three singles and a double, two RBIs. He left after his eighth-inning leadoff single put the go-ahead runner on ahead of Dayan Viciedo, who broke the tie with an RBI double.

So show Kosuke some respect. He’s earned it.

On Sunday, we’ll get to see if the Yomiuri Giants have any similar promotions planned for when they face 40-year-old Tsuyoshi Wada in Fukuoka. The Giants have now lost 11 straight official games to the Hawks, including all eight from the 2019 and 2020 Japan Series.

The losing streak started with a loss to Wada at Tokyo Dome on June 23, 2019, in the finale of a three-game series in which the Giants won the middle game. Wada started and won Game 4 of the 2019 series and started Game 4 last autumn, but left after allowing a run over two innings in SoftBank’s 4-1 clincher in Fukuoka. He’s 6-3 against them over his career. His last loss to them was on May 28, 2009.

Dragons 7, Fighters 4

At Sapporo Dome, the Fighters came back to tie it 4-4 on a two-out two-run Wang Po-jung pinch double, but Bryan Rodriguez couldn’t hold the line in the eighth, after Fukudome’s leadoff single, he surrendered an RBI double to Dayan Viciedo. Takuya Kinoshita, who put Chunichi ahead 3-2 in the fifth with his sixth home run, was intentionally walked and scored on Daiki Mitsumata’s two-run double.

Drew VerHagen started for Nippon Ham and allowed four runs over six-plus innings on eight hits and a walk while striking out five.

Eagles 1 BayStars 1

At Sendai’s Rakuten Seimei Park, Masahiro Tanaka was extremely sharp over eight innings, but one of his few mistakes cost him, when he missed down the pipe to Tyler Austin, who teed off on it to blast his eighth home run and give DeNA a 1-0, sixth-inning lead. Tanaka allowed five hits and hit a batter while striking out six.

Lefty Haruhiro Hamaguchi twice pitched out of tight spots, two on with no outs in the first and a no-out bases-loaded can of worms in the fourth to allow a run over six-plus innings. He left after allowing a leadoff single in the seventh, a runner the bullpen allowed to score.

Eagles closer Yuki Matsui pitched out of a no-out bases-loaded jam in the ninth, while former DeNA closer pitched a scoreless ninth against the bottom of the Eagles order to seal the tie.

Marines 7, Carp 3

At Chiba’s Zozo Marine Stadium, Adeiny Hechavarria went 3-for-5 with a homer and five RBIs, while Lotte leadoff man Takashi Ogino homered, walked twice, doubled and singled as the Marines overran Hiroshima.

Manabu Mima (3-2) allowed two runs over six innings, while Frank Herrmann surrendered another in the seventh, but the last seven Carp hitters bit the dust, while Hechavarria made mincemeat of the visitors’ bullpen.

Swallows 7, Buffaloes 4

At Osaka’s Kyocera Dome, Yakult’s Yasuhiro Ogawa (5-1) allowed three runs over seven innings – on a three-run seventh-inning Steven Moya pinch-hit home run, Jose Osuna doubled, singled, homered and drove in three runs, and Scott McGough struck out the side in the ninth for his fifth save. Domingo Santana also homered and singled for the Swallows.

Hawks 8, Giants 3

At Fukuoka’s PayPay Dome, Yuya Hasegawa delivered a rare performance in a rare start for SoftBank. He hit two of the Hawks’ five home runs, one that tied the game 2-2 in the second and a three-run shot that broke the game open and chased Angel Sanchez (4-3) in the fifth inning. Hasegawa also made a terrific catch in left on a foul ball over the railing to end the Giants’ fifth with a man on.

Nick Martinez (4-1) allowed three runs over seven innings, in which he struck out 10 and walked one. He gave up Zelous Wheeler’s seventh home run, a two-run shot in the first, and allowed another run on four straight one-out singles in the sixth.

Yuki Yangita hit his 12th homer to start the Hawks’ second-inning fightback, while catcher Takuya Kai broke the 2-2 tie with a two-run fourth-inning home run, his fifth, and Nobuhiro Matsuda completed the carnage in the sixth with a solo shot that was his sixth of the season.

Lions 1, tigers 0

At MetLife Dome, Seibu’s Hotaka Yamakawa hit his fifth home run and Tatsuya Imai (3-2) outdueled rookie Masashi Ito (3-2). Imai, whose professional existence has been plagued by walks, struck out six without a walk, while allowing three hits over 5-1/3 innings, when he left the game after a batted ball struck him on the left hand.

Tetsu Miyagawa retired the first three batters he faced before Hanshin loaded the bases in the seventh on a single and two two-out walks. Rookie Teruaki Sato, who blasted three home runs the night before, went down swinging for the second out, and veteran Yoshio Itoi struck out pinch-hitting to end the inning.

A night after Reed Garrett blew a two-run ninth-inning lead, Kaima Taira came into hold the lead in the ninth. After a leadoff walk and a stolen base, Taira struck out Sato and retired Mel Rojas Jr. on a fly out against the foul netting, that Tigers manager Akihiro Yano argued long after the video replay upheld the ruling.