Tag Archives: Matt Dermody

NPB wrap 6-2-21

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

GiantsC22Seiji Kobayashi
TigersIF26Fumiya Hojo
BayStarsOF00Shumei Miyamoto
CarpP19Yusuke Nomura
CarpIF33Ryosuke Kikuchi

Dectivated

GiantsP12Rubby De La Rosa
TigersOF24Mel Rojas Jr.
BayStarsOF8Kazuki Kamizato
SwallowsP48Yuto Kanakubo

Pacific League

Activated

MarinesC99Tomoya Kakinuma

Dectivated

MarinesC45Yuito Munetsugu
EaglesP17Takahiro Shiomi
BuffaloesOF69Stefen Romero

NPB wrap 5-27-21

Plagued

Thursday was Japan’s coronavirus seasons in microcosm. A day that was supposed to be about 19-year-old rookie pitchers going against the big boys, about baseball, became about infections.

Zach Neal was supposed to start for the Seibu Lions against the Hiroshima Carp, but after Sosuke Genda tested positive, the Lions dressed only 19 players, with only a reserve outfielder and catcher on the bench and eight relievers, six of whom got into the game.

Eagles 2, Giants 0

At Tokyo Dome, Ryota Takinaka (3-2) may be Rakuten’s sixth starter, but between his Yu Darvish pitching arsenal starter set (fastball, slider, changeup, splitter, two-seamer, sinker) and perhaps the best curveball Japan’s seen this season, the 26-year-old right-hander just tortured the Yomiuri Giants through six innings.

Eigoro Mogi opened the scoring against Kai Yokogawa (0-1) with his eighth home run in the fourth. Yokogawa’s two-out error in the fifth opened the door for another Eagles run to score on a Hideto Asamura single.

Takinaka, took big bites of the strike zone with that curve, and the lasting image is of Yoshihiro Maru looking for one and coming out of socks as he swung and missed. Takinaka allowed three singles and a walk, while striking out eight. He left after a flare single gave the Giants a leadoff runner in the seventh. Three relievers retired nine of the 10 batters they faced with Yuki Matsui earning his 14th save.

Giants-Eagles highlights.

Swallows 5, Fighters 2

At Tokyo’s Jingu Stadium, Yakult’s Yasunobu Okugawa (2-1) leads this week’s 2019 first-round rookie strikeout challenge with nine after allowing two runs over six innings against Nippon Ham. For the second straight day, Tetsuto Yamada put the Swallows in front, this time with a two-out two-run fifth inning single off Takahide Ikeda (2-5), who allowed three runs, one earned, over six innings.

Swallows leadoff man Yasutaka Shiomi went 4-for-4 with a solo homer, his sixth, and two runs, while Scott McGough closed it out with his fourth save.

BayStars 11, Buffaloes 8

At Yokohama Stadium, we had Chapter 3 of BayStars and Buffaloes beating the hell of each other, closing a series that saw 51 runs scored. Neftali Soto, who homered twice on Tuesday, hit two more, and between an RBI single and a sac fly scored three runs and drove in six. Tyler Austin doubled twice, walked and scored twice for the BayStars.

Fernando Romero, who pretended he was a PL pitcher and surrendered two hits, including a two-run home run, to Masataka Yoshida, let Orix back in the game in a four-run fourth, when the first five batters reached.

Buffaloes right-hander Yang Chi (0-1) allowed seven runs over 2-1/3 innings in his season debut.

Dragons 3, Hawks 3

At Nagoya‘s Vantelin Dome, Chunichi’s Akiyoshi Katsuno allowed three two-out first-inning RBI singles but then cruised until he was pulled in the sixth with two outs. SoftBank’s Shunsuke Kasaya pitched out of trouble for three innings, but walked two batters to open the fourth before surrendering Takuya Kinoshita’s fifth home run.

Keisuke Tanimoto got the Dragons out of the sixth on three pitches and three other relievers each retired all three batters they faced to end it.

Marines 6, Tigers 4

At Koshien Stadium, Katsuya Kakunaka’s second double, when Lotte put two on after two were out in the sixth, tied the game 4-4. Kakunaka then scored the go-ahead run on an infield single and a Jefry Marte throwing error. Leonys Martin hit his Japan-best 16th home run in the eighth.

Hanshin’s Raul Alcantara (1-0, 7.50) surrendered a home run to Takashi Ogino on the game’s first pitch before Jerry Sands pounded out three hits, scoring once and driving in two as the Tigers took a 4-2 lead into the sixth.

Alcantara allowed five runs, four earned, on five hits and a walk over 5-2/3 innings, while striking out eight, and singled in Hanshin’s second run with two outs in the second. Lotte rookie Roki Sasaki (0-0, 3.60) allowed four runs, three earned over five innings in his second first-team start. He allowed seven hits and three walks while striking out five. Chihaya Sasaki, Frank Herrmann, Yuki Karakawa and Naoya Masuda allowed one hit between them to close it out with Masuda earning his 13th save.

Carp 4, Lions 4

At Hiroshima’s Mazda Stadium, Ryoma Nishikawa and Shogo Sakakura combined to score three runs and drive in two for the Hiroshima Carp, who playing their first game in over a week due to coronavirus within the club, overturned a 4-0 deficit to tie Seibu in the first game between two teams dealing with the virus.

Starting pitchers

Interleague

Fighters vs Dragons: Sapporo Dome 6 pm, 5 am EDT

Hiromi Ito (1-4, 3.67) vs Yudai Ono (2-2, 2.70)

Eagles vs BayStars: Rakuten Seimei Park Miyagi 6 pm, 5 am EDT

Hideaki Wakui (5-2, 3.34) vs Yuya Sakamoto (1-1, 3.00)

Lions vs Tigers: MetLife Dome 5:45 pm, 4:45 am EDT

Kona Takahashi (5-0, 2.45) vs Koyo Aoyagi (3-2, 2.00)

Marines vs Carp: Zozo Marine Stadium 5:45 pm, 4:45 am EDT

Shota Suzuki (1-2, 2.95) vs Takuya Yasaki (-)

Buffaloes vs Swallows: Kyocera Dome (Osaka) 6 pm, 5 am EDT

Yoshinobu Yamamoto (3-5, 2.37) vs Rick van den Hurk (0-0, 6.75)

Hawks vs Giants: PayPay Dome 6 pm, 5 am EDT

Shuta Ishikawa (2-3, 2.90) vs Seishu Hatake (2-2, 3.23)

Released

Orix Buffaloes: P Brandon Dickson

Active roster moves 5/27/2021

Deactivated players can be re-activated from 6/6

Central League

Activated

GiantsP62Kai Yokogawa
CarpP21Shota Nakazaki
CarpC40Yoshitaka Isomura
CarpOF55Ryuhei Matsuyama
CarpOF63Ryoma Nishikawa
SwallowsP11Yasunobu Okugawa
SwallowsP44Hiroki Onishi

Dectivated

BayStarsP16Shinichi Onuki
CarpIF61Masaya Yano
SwallowsP52Hiroki Kondo

Pacific League

Activated

MarinesP17Roki Sasaki
FightersP47Kenya Suzuki
BuffaloesP98Chang Yi

Dectivated

FightersC60Takuya Khri