The 20th season of Interleague play started Tuesday, with the Pacific League holding a 1,253-1,122-71 record for a .526 winning percentage. The current format is for each team to play six three-game series, one against each of the other league’s teams, playing home and away in alternate years. I have some interleague notes below, as well as some news regarding Roki Sasaki, and a new Buffalo.

Roki Sasaki was deactivated Tuesday, due to his inability to recover sufficiently from upper-body fatigue following Friday’s start against the SoftBank Hawks, when he overcame a stressful 35-pitch first inning to go seven in a 3-1 win. Sasaki is currently 4-2 with a 2.18 ERA in eight games.

The Orix Buffaloes have signed 31-year-old right-hander Luis Perdomo, making him the second former Marine on the roster, after Luis Castillo. Perdomo posted 41 holds and went 1-3 in 53 games last year with a 2.13 ERA. He struck out 41 batters in 50-2/3 innings while walking 15 and allowing one home run.

Tuesday’s games:

Carp 2, Buffaloes 1: At New Hiroshima Citizens Stadium, Anderson Espinoza (4-3) allowed two runs on two walks and three hits over seven innings but came out on the short end when both of his first-inning walks scored on a Shota Suekane single, while Hiroki Tokoda (6-2), stranded seven runners over seven innings to earn the win after Sotaro Shimauchi retired the heart of the order 1-2-3 in the eighth and Ryoji Kuribayashi did the same in the ninth for his 15th save and Hiroshima’s fourth straight win. The Buffaloes lost their third straight.

Ryoma Nishikawa returned to Hiroshima and Yuma Tongu returned to Orix’s lineup for the first time in 13 games. Singles by Tomoya Mori and former Carp Nishikawa set up Tongu’s sacrifice fly that halved Hiroshima’s lead.

Continue reading NPB news: May 28, 2024 →