Nippon Professional Baseball played its final games Sunday before this week’s all-star break, with Tomoyuki Sugano picking more low hanging fruit with some help from a new teammate. Livan Moinelo was solid again, Tyler Austin hit another big homer on a night when no matter how many DeNA hit, it wouldn’t be enough.
Nippon Ham came from behind twice thanks to an outstanding effort from its bullpen, while Orix and Hiroshima got crushed in Kansai.
Sunday’s games:
Giants 4, Dragons 1: At Nagoya Dome, Tomoyuki Sugano allowed a run over six innings and new Giant Gakuto Wakabayashi hit a two-run home run to lead Yomiuri past Chunichi. Yomiuri, looking for its first Central League pennant in four years, bounced back from a 1-0 loss on Friday to take the final two games of the series.
The 34-year-old Sugano, a two-time winner of the Eiji Sawamura Award as Japanese pro baseball’s most impressive starting pitcher, improved to 8-2. He allowed five hits while striking out five and walking none.
Wakabayashi made it 2-0 Giants in the fifth inning with his first home run since being traded from the Pacific League’s Seibu Lions on June 25.
With a four-run lead in the sixth, Sugano surrendered a home run to Sho Nakata, who was released by Yomiuri in December, two and a half years after he was discarded by Nippon Ham.
Six of Sugano’s wins have come against the worst two CL teams, three each against the fifth-place Dragons and last-place Swallows. His other two came against title-contender Hiroshima, and the team with Japan’s worst record, the Seibu Lions.
Continue reading NPB news: July 21, 2024