Tag Archives: Maikel Franco

NPB news: July 7, 2023

Fifteen strikeouts, a three-hitter, and a couple of nail-biters. Not bad for a Friday with just three games.

Friday’s games

Eagles 6, Hawks 5: At Miyagi Stadium, Kohei Arihara (3-1), who had given up all three of his runs this year on three solo home runs, diversified his portfolio as the Eagles hitters took early batting practice against him. Arihara retired the first two batters he faced in the game, only for the next six to reach. Maikel Franco popped the cork on the five-run inning with an RBI single. Ryosuke Tatsumi singled in another and Yukiya Ito capped it with a three-run shot.

Franco homered to make it 6-0 in the third, as Takahiro Norimoto (4-4) pitched out of a couple of early scrapes. Then suddenly, SoftBank got back in it. Akira Nakamura doubled and scored in the fifth on a Kensuke Kondo single.

Ryoya Kurihara made it 6-2 with a sixth-inning homer, before three walks loaded the bases with two out. Another Kondo single made it 6-3 and Yuki Yanagita‘s third hit of the game made it 6-5, but there it would stay even after Kondo and Yanagita reached in the ninth against Yuki Matsui , who closed out his 18th save by striking out Kurihara.

Continue reading NPB news: July 7, 2023

NPB news: May 21, 2023

Yomiuri’s Foster Griffin had his obligatory good outing against Chunichi, two second-chancers had big games for their clubs, while another guy who badly needed a second chance but finally got playing time with the team that drafted him in 2013 also delivered. The red-and-black attack keeps rolling, a former closer threw a complete game, and a rookie named Morishita got the better of a former rookie of the year named Morishita.

Minor moves

On Friday, the SoftBank Hawks called up a minor league pitcher, which is not really news worthy, other than that the team ordered him pulled off the mound in his Western League game so he could report to the major league club.

Meanwhile, DeNA announced it was letting the team’s recent graduate of MLB’s domestic violence, sexual assault and child abuse suspension program to pitch in the Eastern League Sunday against Lotte as a tune-up for his next start. He was not deactivated.

Saturday’s games

Giants 6, Dragons 2: At Tokyo Dome, Foster Griffin (4-1) held Chunichi to two runs over six innings to improve to 3-0 against the Dragons, who coughed up the game’s first run on one-out singles by Takumi Oshiro and Yuto Akihiro and an error by shortstop Ryuku Tsuchida.

Naoki Yoshikawa doubled off Shinnosuke Ogasawara (3-2) and scored on a Kazumasa Okamoto third-inning single, while Yoshikawa and Okamoto reached in the fourth and Takumi Oshiro followed with his sixth homer, and his first career grand slam.

Second-chancer Seiya Hosokawa had two doubles for the Dragons and scored on Takaya Ishikawa’s fourth home run, while the Giants bullpen didn’t make the game interesting for a change.

Continue reading NPB news: May 21, 2023