There were six games and a trade on Wednesday, which gave the Pacific League has a new league leader and a 42-year-old winner, while Shugo Maki arrested DeNA’s slide with a two-homer game.
Giants trade for pitching
In a story that could also be titled “trading in irony,” the Yomiuri Giants have shipped 26-year-old shortstop Taishi Hiraoka to the Orix Buffaloes for 29-year-old right-hander Kohei “formerly known as ‘K'” Suzuki. The Giants’ 4.31 ERA is Japan’s worst, and manager Tatsunori Hara has been vocal about his inexperienced relievers getting roasted the past few weeks.
The irony is that Hiraoka, acquired as cover for Hayato Sakamoto on March 1, 2021, cost the Giants a reliever they’d given up on, then 25-year-old Kazuto Taguchi. Since then, the lefty has turned his career around with the Yakult Swallows, where he has stepped into the closer’s role this season following the departure of Scott McGough to the Arizona Diamondbacks.
Since that trade, Hiraoka has slashed .190/.263/.348 in 207 plate appearances over 115 games, while Taguchi has pitched in 93 games. The lefty’s 6-11. After going 5-9 in 100-2/3 innings in his first season at Jingu, Taguchi is 1-2 with 13 saves and 20 holds, striking out 48 in 49-2/3 innings while walking 12 and allowing one home run.
Wednesday’s games
Marines 7, Buffaloes 3: At Chiba Marine Stadium, Kazuya Ojima (4-1) allowed two runs over eight innings for his sixth straight quality start as Lotte edged into first place ahead of Orix on winning-percentage points.
Kenta Chatani and Hisanori Yasuda put Lotte on the board with back-to-back fourth-inning RBI singles. Chatani’s RBI double made it 3-0 in the fifth against Daiki Tajima (4-3). Marwin Gonzalez broke up Ojima’s shutout bid in the seventh with his seventh home run, a two-run shot.
Hisanori Yasuda doubles in his second run of the game in Lotte’s three-run fifth.
On Tuesday, rookies took center stage in Hokkaido, while for 32-year-old Hideto Asamura had the kind of game we used to expect from him in past years, while Kaima Taira and Shuta Tonosaki led the Lions. The Central League’s games were all about pitching, with very little to separate the winners and losers.
On another note, I went on to the field for the first time prior to an official NPB game for the first time since Oct. 23, 2019 when the SoftBank Hawks completed their sweep of the Japan Series at Tokyo Dome.
MLB, South Korea’s KBO and Taiwan’s CPBL have all returned to their pre-pandemic pre- and postgame reporting norms, but Japan has been holding out, allowing teams to set their own COVID-19 restrictions on fans and reporters. Some teams have resumed letting fans on the field during batting practice so they can get up close to the players, while those same teams are still restricting reporters to the stands.
Reporting on the field
At Tokyo Dome on Tuesday, Seibu, hosted the SoftBank Hawks, who have been restricting their beat writers, to the stands and camera pen. The Lions side of the field was back to pre-pandemic normal. When I went to the SoftBank side, all the reporters were either still in the stands or in with the photographers, from where they were expected to talk to players.
I was allowed to stand on my own near the dugout until I started speaking to Kensuke Kondo. We were interrupted by a Hawks PR person who suggested I go over to where the other reporters were.
The Tokyo Sports Kisha Club, which organizes Japan’s pro baseball media, filed a complaint with NPB in 2021 and was told to mind its own business, but on May 8, Japan will officially downgrade COVID-19 to the status of a common cold, so it will be very interesting to see what restrictions remain.
I won’t be surprised if some teams want to hold out as long as they can to prevent reporters from loitering on the field where they can question everybody in uniform without the team’s permission.
Tuesday’s games
BayStars 2, Giants 0: At Nagasaki, Kenta Ishida (2-1) allowed four singles, while striking out eight and walking none over eight innings, Neftali Soto’s bases-loaded RBI infield single broke up a scoreless game against Shosei Togo in the fourth.
Toshiro Miyazaki, who doubled in the fourth to contribute to the BayStars’ first run, singled in an eighth-inning insurance run after Keita Sano’s leadoff double, and Yasuaki Yamasaki retired three straight pinch-hitters in the ninth for his fourth save.
Lions 7, Hawks 3: At Tokyo Dome, Seibu erupted for four home runs while Kaima Taira (2-0) allowed a run over six innings on two hits by Ryoya Kurihara and four walks.
Takeya Nakamura‘s second homer of the season gives Seibu a 2-1 lead.
Ishikawa left in the fifth with one out and two one, but Tonosaki treated reliever Katsuki Matayoshi no less rudely, belting a three-run homer before Mark Payton’s third made it 7-1.
Shuta Tonosaki’s fourth homer of the season.
Swallows 2, Dragons 0: At Matsuyama, Chunichi created plenty of scoring opportunities but
Cy Sneed (3-0) stranded nine runners over six innings, while two catchable balls to Aristides Aquino in the first inning were not caught. One a routine fly to left, was charged an error, the second, to the warning track was ruled an RBI double for Munetaka Murakami.
Hideaki Wakui (0-3) only had one really tough inning, when the Swallows loaded the bases in the fourth, and got a run on a groundout. Instead, Sneed remained unbeaten in his career against the Dragons.
“Mucho (catcher Yuhei Nakamura) called a great game, we played pretty good defense and the bullpen did a fantastic job closing it out,” Sneed said. “Lot of runners on base today, but that’s where you have confidence in your catcher and in the fielders behind you and just keep trying to make good pitches.”
Swallows-Dragons highlights
Eagles 5, Buffaloes 1: At Osaka Dome, Hideto Asamura turned back the clock. After 5-1/3 innings from Taisuke Yamaoka and 1-2/3 innings from Yuki Udagawa left Orix with a 1-0 lead, after Takahiro Norimoto surrendered Kotaro Kurehara’s fourth-inning RBI single.
Jacob Waguespack (1-2) got two quick outs, but the game went south on a Yuma Tongu error that extended the inning and brought Asamura to the plate. He hit Waguespack’s second pitch for his first home run of the season. Waguespack walked Maikel Franco and Hitomi Honda allowed the runner on first to score on a single and two more walks.
Hideto Asamura’s 1st home run of 2023
Asamura’s two-out homer in the ninth sparked a two-run final inning.
Tigers 2, Carp 1: At Koshien Stadium, Hanshin’s Yuki Nishi (1-1) lost his shutout bid with two outs in the ninth when Ryan McBroom doubled home Ryosuke Kikuchi on a 2-2 pitch to put Hiroshima up 1-0, but picked up the win when the Ryoji Kuribayashi (0-2) blew the save opportunity.
Marines 4, Fighters 2: At Kitahiroshima Taxpayers Burden Field, it was rookie day.
Kazuya Ojima (1-1) surrendered a third-inning run on rookie Taiki Narama’s first career homer, but the Marines came back in the fourth on a Kyota Fujiwara triple and a single by rookie Atsuki Tomosugi who then scored with the help of two wild pitches by Fighters’ rookie Shoma Kanemura (1-1).
Kanemura struck out eight without a walk while allowing four runs, two earned, on four singles over six innings. A sixth-inning error, a Tomosugi single and a Koki Yamaguchi double made it 4-1.
