The Daily Sports reported Friday that veteran Hanshin Tigers hurler Randy Messenger told the Central League club he will retire. The Tigers released that news on Saturday morning.
The 38-year-old right-hander, who joined the Tigers in 2010, has a career record of 98-84 over 10 seasons with a 3.13 ERA. He has struggled with fitness this season, in which he has posted a 3-7 record with a 4.69 ERA.
Messenger pitched in 173 major league games before arriving in Japan. Prior to the Tigers, he pitched in the big leagues with the Florida Marlins, San Francisco Giants and Seattle Mariners.
From 2013, Messenger led the CL in strikeouts for two straight years, and led the league in wins as well the following year.
Among foreign registered pitchers, Messenger ranks fifth in wins. The top two on the list were contemporaries from Taiwan in the 1980s and 90s, the second two American contemporaries from the 1960s:
Messenger returned to the United States at the end of July for treatment on his right shoulder, and returned to Japan on Aug. 8. On Thursday, he pitched for the farm team against the Tokushima Indigo Sox of the independent Shikoku Island League. He worked four scoreless innings before allowing four runs in the fifth.
There were a bunch of exciting games and big innings on Tuesday in NPB, with the SoftBank Hawks showing what they can do with the short fences at their ballpark — even with two of their three top home run hitters out of the lineup.
Central League
Giants 6, Swallows 5
At Kyocera Dome, pinch hitter Shnnosuke Shigenobu’s deep fly got over Yakult’s shallow outfield for a sayonara single that snapped Yomiuri’s four-game losing streak.
Both sides had ample chances to win this, missing a chance to deliver a knockout punch with the bases loaded. Giants starter Shun Yamaguchi was on track to win his 11th game of the season when the Giants bludgeoned David Buchanan for four runs in the first. Yamaguchi made the last out, grounding into an inning-ending double play with the bases loaded.
Yamaguchi didn’t allow a hit until Wladimir Balentien homered to open the fifth. With a three-run lead in the eighth, Yamaguchi left with two outs and two on, but Rubby De La Rosa’s first pitch to Norichika Aoki cleared the outfield wall to tie it.
Giants reliever Scott Mathieson walked two of the four batters he faced in the ninth, and lefty Kota Nakagawa walked the bases loaded but got Tetsuto Yamada to fly out and give the Giants a chance to exhale.
With two on and no outs, the Swallows went into their throw-the-runner-out-at-the-plate-on-a-single shallow outfield defense, and Shigenobu launched a fly to the warning track that Aoki couldn’t haul in.
At Mazda Stadium, Xavier Batista had his second two-home run game since Saturday, his two-run shot tying it in the ninth before Geronimo Franzua pitched out of a 10th-inning jam and Tomohiro Abe won it for Hiroshima by leading off the home half of the 10th with a home run.
Batista, whose first homer was launched into the netting above the upper deck in left field and protects Hiroshima Station’s rail yard from such missiles, now has 23 home runs this season. Franzua (6-3) walked two batters in the 10th but put the lead runner out on the third-base line before he could score and then celebrated when he got a fly out to end the inning.
The talking heads blamed Dragons runner Yohei Oshima for his late start, but it was a poor bunt and also good fielding from Franzua that made the play.
Here’s a look at the Franzua celebration if you haven’t seen it.
BayStars 6, Tigers 6, 12 innings
At Koshien Stadium, Yoshitomo Tsustugo prevented DeNA from losing with a two-strike, two-out, ninth-inning RBI double off Hanshin closer Rafael Dolis that tied a wild game 6-6.
The Tigers welcomed back Kosuke Fukudome, who reached base three times, while Jefry Marte went 3-for-5 with his eighth home run, a result the Nikkan Sports attributed to the arrival of Yangervis Solarte.
The story includes Marte speaking about how happy he is to have another quality player on the team, but there is a kind of subtext to it, essentially saying Marte is playing hard because he has competition.
Pacific League
Fighters 5, Buffaloes 2
At Hotto Motto Field Kobe, former Orix ace Chihiro Kaneko looked at home in Kobe, allowing two walks over six hitless innings for Nippon Ham. Kaneko (4-5), who left Orix in a contract dispute over the winter, struck out four in a 92-pitch effort.
New Buffalo Steven Moya belted a two-run home run for the second-straight game to account for his team’s scoring. Tyler Eppler threw a scoreless inning of relief for the Buffaloes, while Stefen Romero returned to action, going 1-for-4 with a ninth-inning single in his first action since being sidelined with injury in June.
At Yafuoku Dome, Kenta Imamiya returned to action for the first time since June 20, and blasted a home run in his first at-bat. Nobuhiro Matsuda followed with his first of the night, and Alfredo Despaigne made it a hat-trick as SoftBank jumped out to a quick 3-0 lead in its win over Lotte.
The Hawks, who lead all 12 teams in home runs with 124, hit five, while Seiya Inoue hit two, two-run shots for Lotte. Katsuya Kakunaka plated Brandon Laird with a home run, and Laird chipped in with his 27th.
Veteran Hanshin Tigers pitcher Randy Messenger will return to the United States this summer for treatment to deal with lower-body issues. The 37-year-old right-hander was Hanshin’s Opening Day starter for the fifth-straight season in March, and has had that honor six times since joining the team in 2010.
