Tag Archives: Raidel Martinez

NPB news: April 2, 2025

Nobody’s perfect in Japanese pro baseball, not the Lotte Marines dropped their home opener Wednesday following their weekend sweep of the SoftBank Hawks, and not the Yomiuri Giants’ Hayato Sakamoto. Perhaps the greatest shortstop Japan has produced, Sakamoto, we learned Wednesday from reports, has been caught in a rundown with tax officials over some of his deduction claims.

Wednesday’s games

Buffaloes 3, Marines 2: At Chiba Marine Stadium, Masahiro Nishino made up for a costly error with a tie-breaking two-run homer after the two starters, Orix’s Ryuhei Sotani and Lotte’s Yuji Nishino pitched six entertaining innings apiece. The Marines opened the scoring in the third on a one-out walk, Nishino’s throwing error and a beautiful safety squeeze from Akito Takabe. Kotaro Kuribayashi’s two-out RBI infield single tied it in the fourth.

Nishino homered in the top of the seventh, Neftali Soto singled in a run in the home half, when Orix reliever Seiryu Kotajima left the bases loaded. Andres Machado allowed a leadoff single in the ninth but struck out Soto to end it.

Continue reading NPB news: April 2, 2025

NPB news: March 30, 2025

Our first weekend’s worth of games wrapped up Sunday, when the Nippon Ham Fighters, Lotte Marines and Yomiuri Giants each completed series sweeps. Naoyuki Uwasawa made his Hawks debut only for his nemesis, Neftali Soto, to turn the game Lotte’s way, with Lotte’s go-ahead run scoring on a fluke play. But first, a word from our sponsor.

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Sunday’s games

Fighters 7, Lions 5: At the roofed stadium formerly known as Prince, one long streak ended and another kept rolling.

Nippon Ham opened the season with three straight wins, something no team in the franchise had accomplished since 1962, when the Toei Flyers went on to win the franchise’s first Japan Series. Yuki James Nomura was a wrecking ball, doubling in a first-inning run, hitting a three-run third-inning homer and a two-run shot in the fifth.

Franmil Reyes went 3-for-3 with two doubles, a walk, three runs and an eighth-inning leadoff single that led to the Fighters’ final run after he was pulled for a pinch-runner.

New Lion Tyler Nevin tied the game 1-1 in the first with a sac fly to deep right that Chusei Manami nearly made interesting with a picture-perfect throw to the plate. Shuta Tonosaki homered in the fourth for Seibu, whose starter, Kona Takahashi, suffered his 12th straight losing decision. Leandro Cedeno, who joined Seibu over the winter from Orix, went 2-for-4 with a two-run eighth-inning double.

The Fighters’ Drew VerHagen allowed two runs over five innings to earn the win.

Continue reading NPB news: March 30, 2025