One of NPB’s four Thursday games was rained out, leaving the Central League-leading Hiroshima Carp to root for the Chunichi Dragons to sweep the second-place Yakult Swallows on a rainy night in the Kanto region.

The BayStars completed their Niigata-Yokohama split series with the Giants, while the league-leading Rakuten Eagles and the Lotte Marines had the Pacific League action all to themselves in Sendai.

With Nao Higashihama‘s no-hitter on Tuesday, a colleague at my unnamed day job asked if three nine-inning no hitters, counting Yudai Ono’s that was lost in the 10th, were a lot for less than two months of baseball.

So between baseball, statistical stuff, and a rant about an import player’s fielding, we have a lot going on.

Shall we get to it?