Tag Archives: Roki Sasaki

NPB news: May 28, 2023

Roki Sasaki returned and was not razor sharp, while Hanshin got another big start on Sunday Japan’s two league leaders head into the start of interleague Tuesday on a high note, while Yakult is hitting all sour notes as they went into their series finale with Hiroshima having dropped nine straight decisions.

I want to apologize for not posting anything yesterday, but I was dead tired after a busy shift at the salt mine before recording a podcast and spending the rest of my free time working out a program to create 1,000s of simulated results from normally distributed six-team leagues.

This is a tool I created to find out whether we should or shouldn’t be surprised by the Yomiuri Giants’ surprising success at 0-0 and 1-0 counts over the past 14 seasons, and now that it’s done, I’ve gotten some interesting results.

But enough of that for now…

Sunday’s games

Marines 9, Hawks 5: At Fukuoka Dome, Roki Sasaki (4-0), pitching for the first time in over three weeks and threw mostly fastballs and splitters, and as usual, the command of his splitters was an issue, although he had good movement on them, two bad ones and a fly out resulted in two fourth-inning runs on a fluke single, a triple and a sac fly.

Otherwise he was simply too good for SoftBank, striking out nine over six innings while walking one and allowing three hits.

Marines captain Shogo Nakamura hit his third homer in the first with a man on against Koya Fujii (4-3) and singled in a run in the second. Gregory Polanco’s fifth homer, with two on in the seventh, made it 6-2 and manager Masato Yoshii took that as his cue to pull Sasaki after 82 pitches.

Polanco hit a two-run eighth-inning double and SoftBank got some redemption on Ryoya Kurihara’s three run, ninth-inning homer, his sixth.

Continue reading NPB news: May 28, 2023

NPB news: May 19, 2023

Rain washed out two of Friday’s five scheduled games, when the Nippon Ham Fighters took their red-and-black-attack duds on the road, and the Hanshin Tigers put their win streak on the line.

Two teams that didn’t play, DeNA and Lotte, about their big name starting pitchers’ next starts, while one of Samurai Japan’s regulars is back in action for the first time since March’s final in Miami, as is Carter Stewart Jr. Reportedly a hit in winter ball, Stewart had not pitched on the farm this season.

I missed some big news Thursday, when it was learned that Hall of Famer Futoshi Nakanishi had died. I had the good fortune of talking with Nakanishi a lot over the years, and wrote a bit about him.

Yoshii: Sasaki to return on May 28

Lotte’s Roki Sasaki‘s next start has been set, Marines manager Masato Yoshii said. Sasaki, who raised a blister on his right middle finger while pitching against the SoftBank Hawks on May 5, had been penciled in to start Sunday.

Yoshii said he threw in the bullpen Friday in Sendai, but has been pushed back a week after rain washed out the game, although the blister, the skipper said is no longer a problem.

Let’s see if I get this. The Marines’ best pitcher is fit and ready to go, but you want to push him back seven days because of a single rainout.

This is extremely reminiscent of when Yoshii was the Fighters’ pitching coach in 2016, and Shohei Ohtani was out of the rotation for six weeks “because of a blister.” Ohtani would throw bullpens and Yoshii would report he was fine but not ready.

Out of the rotation, Ohtani was able to bat everyday, and really got the hang of that, but the official stories behind his absence from the mound all sounded fishy, and all summer Yoshii just smiled and reported everything was fine.

Let’s just say, I’ll believe Sasaki’s fine and back when he actually pitches, but I wouldn’t be surprised if there’s another issue Yoshii doesn’t want to talk about.

Meanwhile, in Yokohama, DeNA manager Daisuke Miura announced that his newest graduate of MLB’s domestic violence, sexual assault and child abuse suspension program will not pitch again until next Tuesday in case anybody cares.

Continue reading NPB news: May 19, 2023