There was no baseball in Japan Friday, but the night before the postseason begins with the Central and Pacific league’s Foreplay series’ first stage, we have our starting-pitching matchups for Saturday’s games in Hiroshima and Chiba, and ladies and gentlemen, that makes this Roki Eve.

In another connection with Chiba, longtime former Marines third baseman Toshiaki Imae has been tabbed to manage the Rakuten Eagles after the club opted to promote Kazuhisa Ishii to “Senior Director” rather than extending his contract after the Eagles finished fourth for the second straight year.

Calling Japan’s playoffs what they are

When the PL acted to make its late-season games meaningful by introducing a two-stage playoff format in 2004, the CL owners howled with laughter at their temerity, that having playoffs implied the old way, championed by the CL since its founding in 1950, could be anything less than ideal.

But for the next three years, PL teams in the playoff hunt drew big crowds in September and October, while CL teams played out the string. The CL pennant winners then sat on their hands waiting for a battle-hardened PL champion to emerge and vanquish them in the Japan Series.

So in 2007, the CL decided it would have a postseason tournament, too, and would put its stamp on it with new rules and a new name. And unlike pupils caught laughing amongst themselves in class and asked by the teacher if they would like to share the joke with the rest of the class, the CL owners, who thought the PL playoffs were hilarious, came up with something worth laughing at. Seeking something catchy the CL smart asses decided that the Japan Series’ qualifying tournament was a “Climax Series,” suggesting they might not know whether they are coming or going.

Saturday’s pitchers

On Saturday, Sasaki, who has had two three-inning stints since coming back from an oblique strain and has since been deactivated for COVID, will go against Carter Stewart Jr., who has mastered the splitter he learned in the minors and is now mixing with an excellent fastball and curve. If his command is consistent, which it has not been, he is absolutely filthy.

Continue reading NPB news: Getting hot and bothered →