Yutaro Sugimoto has emerged from a year of hibernation on a day of big hits for the defending league champions’ biggest sluggers.
Yutaro “Raoh” Sugimoto, whose 2022 season has been a pale imitation of his breakout 2021, was Mr. RBI for the Orix Buffaloes for the second straight day. In Tokyo, Munetaka Murakami, after missing fat pitches for most of the past three weeks, hit a tough one in the seats to propel the Yakult Swallows into a commanding position in the CL’s foreplay series final stage.
With all the regular season games complete, more players who were hoping to be back with their teams next year have been informed that those teams have different plans.
On Tuesday, amurai Japan manager Hideki Kuriyama announced his squad for four November games that will help him prepare for March’s World Baseball Classic, with the big news out of that being how a lot of top players were not on the list, and I don’t just mean the MLB guys who are not eligible until March.
We also had news about Tatsunori Hara’s desire to manage the Yomiuri Giants next season despite the team’s failings, and some thoughts on a possible replacement for Tadahito Iguchi with the Lotte Marines.
Meanwhile the SoftBank Hawks have named their starting pitcher for the first stage of the Pacific League’s Preclimax series against the Seibu Lions starting Saturday.
