Tag Archives: Roki Sasaki

NPB news: June 13, 2024

A day after Japan had two Madduxes, there were three shutouts, two of which were complete games. Off the field, the Orix Buffaloes got some good news and bad news, while Seibu infielder Ryusei Sato is out with a left-wrist fracture, and the Lotte Marines announced that Roki Sasaki has had another setback and is being deactivated.

Thursday’s games:

Tigers 5, Buffaloes 0: At Osaka UFO Dome, Yuki Nishi (3-3) shut out his former team on six hits and no walks while striking out four. It took Hanshin three scoring opportunities before the Tigers cashed in their first one against Daiki Tajima (3-3) in a four-run fourth. With one out and two on, a run scored on a grounder, with the batter safe at first on a fielder’s choice. Seiya Kinami doubled in one run and Shota Morishita doubled in two more.

Nishi retired 12 straight after a second-inning leadoff single, and then set down the next eight after a leadoff double in the sixth. The Buffaloes’ loss snapped a seven-game win streak.

Continue reading NPB news: June 13, 2024

NPB news: June 7, 2024

The season’s second no-hit shutout was thrown Friday, when the first time in a while, it was Roki Eve in Japan, as Lotte right-hander Roki Sasaki was named to start Saturday in Hiroshima for the first time since his May 24 outing against SoftBank. On the field Friday, there was an old-teammate showdown between a pair of former bullpen mates with the SoftBank Hawks, as DeNA sent former Hawks closer Yuito Mori out to start against converted bullpen ace Livan Moinelo.

Friday’s games:

Buffaloes 2, Giants 0: At Tokyo Ugly Dome, Kohei Azuma (2-3) bounced from four forgettable starts to throw eight shutout innings and Andres Machado recorded his third save in three straight games as Orix knocked Yomiuri into second place in the Central League behind Hiroshima

Orix took a 1-0 first-inning lead against Shosei Togo (5-3) when Giants center fielder Elier Hernandez misjudged a line drive from Masahiro Nishino and let it get over his head for a triple before Ryoma Nishikawa singled the runner in. Kotaro Kurebayashi homered in the fourth off Giants starter Shosei Togo, who floated a 1-1 slider up there like it was BP.

But Togo did well to hold Orix to two runs with Hernandez having a series of misadventures in center field.

Azuma warmed up on the sidelines ahead of the ninth so there was some surprise that he went back to the clubhouse and Machado took his place.

“I was hoping,” Azuma said. “I was supposed to start the ninth if we got a four-run lead, but it was only two.”

In his three May starts, Azuma went 0-2 and surrendered 11 runs in 20-1/3 innings. In his first June start, he worked 3-1/3 scoreless innings before receiving the required automatic ejection for hitting a batter on the helmet.

Continue reading NPB news: June 7, 2024