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NPB news June 10, 2022

June 10, 2022 Jim Allen Leave a comment

Japan’s final interleague series got started Friday with the Central League-leading Yakult Swallows trying to lock up their first interleague championship in a three-game set against the Pacific League-leading SoftBank Hawks, starting with a heat vs finesse duel in the opener.

Friday was also Roki Eve, with young Mr. Sasaki’s start pushed back a day, ostensibly to give him more rest, although he’s been getting shoved off the front page for a while.

Let’s go.

Friday’s games

Swallows 3, Hawks 1: At Fukukuoka Dome, Yasuhiro Ogawa (4-3) attacked the strike zone relentlessly, and got hit hard early, but stuck with it to limit the Hawks to one run on nine hits and no walks over seven innings, while Munetaka Murakami and Tetsuto Yamada each homered for the CL leaders,

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NPB news: June 8, 2022

June 8, 2022 Jim Allen Leave a comment

We didn’t have another no-hitter on Wednesday, but only by the slimmest of margins on a night when the Central League won five of six to give it a fighting chance of finishing .500 in interleague this year.

Wednesday’s games

Hawks 1, Tigers 0: At Fukuoka Dome, Nao Higashihama (6-1) worked six scoreless innings, Koya Fujii worked a solid seventh, Katsuki Matayoshi survived an eighth-inning bases-loaded by striking out Yusuke Oyama and Kento Itohara, and Livan Moinelo secured his ninth save.

Akira Nakamura kept the Tigers off the scoreboard in the top of the fourth, his offline throw from right in time to nail Koji Chikamoto at the plate when he tried to score from second on Itohara’s two-out single, allowing the Hawks to open the scoring in their at-bat.

After no-out singles from Taisei Makihara and Yuki Yanagita, Junya Nishi (3-2) hit Yurisbel Gracial and a run came home on a ground out.