Tag Archives: Seiichi Uchikawa

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NPB 2020 Nov. 2

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Monday’s games

CL

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PL

Other news

Uchikawa set to leave Hawks

Seiichi Uchikawa, a former Japan international, one of two players to win a batting title in both the Central and Pacific leagues and the player, more than any other, who signaled the start of the SoftBank Hawks’ current dynasty, will look for another team next season after being told he is no longer in the PL champs’ plans.

He joins a growing number of veterans on the winter job market including Tigers’ outfielder Kosuke Fukudome and former Hanshin ace Atsushi Nomi.

In 2011, the 38-year-old Uchikawa became the first CL star in his prime to move directly to the PL as a free agent. The Nippon Ham Fighters’ biggest hitter of their strong teams from 2006 to 2012, Atsunori Inaba, left the Yakult Swallows after 2004, but signed with the Fighters only after he failed to get a guaranteed offer in the majors.

Uchikawa’s arrival, a year after SoftBank won its first pennant but lost in the playoffs, was followed by the team winning six Japan Series championships in nine seasons.

The native of Oita Prefecture, Uchikawa was the BayStars’ No. 1 pick out of high school in the 2000 draft, and had his breakout season in 2004. He is one of those players who works hard to make himself understood and expends more energy than most in thinking of better ways to express himself. So while some players seem to have a recorded answer for common questions they face and give identical answers every time they are asked, I doubt Uchikawa ever answers any question the same way.

He speaks with a lisp, and while some players with a speech impediment seem reluctant to speak, Uchikawa has always appeared to relish it and seems to enjoy delivering unique perspectives on the most mundane topics.

Enokida pitches Lions past Fighters

The Nippon Ham Fighters gave lefty Daiki Enokida a bunch of mulligans by laying off fat pitches early on, and before they knew it, the game was up in a 4-0 two-hit loss to the Seibu Lions on Monday at MetLife Dome.

The Lions win moved them to within one-game of the second-place Lotte Marines in the fight for the Pacific League’s second and final playoff spot.

Enokida (1-1) began with inconsistent location, but the Fighters hitters went to the plate almost as if they’d been told Enokida would throw NOTHING in the zone. So when he missed, they watched or were surprised, and the 34-year-old began pin-pointing the edges of the zone and really spinning his 86-mph fastball that the Fighters hitters rarely got good swings on.

Fighters rookie Tsubasa Nabatame (0-1) allowed two runs in the first. An error, an infield single and a sacrifice put two men in scoring position. With the infield in against left-handed-hitting Takumi Kuriyama, the rookie left a pitch up, and Kuriyama put a textbook flat slap-hitter swing on it smacking it between third and short for a two-run single.

Fumikazu Kimura homered in the fifth to make it 3-0 and Ryosuke Moriwake got the Lions out of a seventh-inning jam after Enokida allowed a one-out double and a walk.

Kaima Taira worked a 1-2-3 eighth and after an insurance run in the bottom of the eighth, closer Tatsushi Masuda sat down so Reed Garrett could finish the shutout.

Active roster moves 11/2/2020

Deactivated players can be re-activated from 11/12

Central League

Activated

None

Dectivated

GiantsP12Rubby De La Rosa
GiantsP30Yohei Kagiya
BayStarsP12Kosuke Sakaguchi
TigersOF7Yoshio Itoi

Pacific League

Activated

LionsP30Daiki Enokida
FightersP13Tsubasa Nabatame
FightersC64Yua Tamiya

Dectivated

LionsP50Shunta Nakatsuka
HawksP67Shunsuke Kasaya
FightersP16Kohei Arihara
FightersC22Shinya Tsuruoka
BuffaloesP32Brandon Dickson
BuffaloesP52Tyler Higgins
BuffaloesIF5Masahiro Nishino
BuffaloesIF36Tatsuya Yamaashi
BuffaloesOF50Yuya Oda
BuffaloesOF56Yusuke Matsui

Starting pitchers for Nov. 3, 2020

Pacific League

Lions vs Fighters: MetLife Dome 6 pm, 5 am EDT

Daiki Enokida (0-1, 7.13) vs Tsubasa Nabatame (0-0, 27.00)

Lions vs Fighters: MetLife Dome 2 pm, 1 am EDT

Kona Takahashi (8-8, 3.63) vs Takahiro Nishimura (0-0, 4.15)

Marines vs Hawks: Zozo Marine Stadium 2 pm, 1 am EDT

Ayumu Ishikawa (7-5, 4.01) vs Rick van den Hurk (1-2, 7.29)

Central League

Buffaloes vs Eagles: Kyocera Dome 6 pm, 5 am EDT

Sachiya Yamasaki (4-5, 4.83) vs Takahiro Norimoto (5-6, 3.67)

Dragons vs BayStars: Nagoya Dome 2 pm, 1 am EDT

Koji Fukutani (7-2, 2.53) vs Shinichi Onuki (10-5, 2.41)

Tigers vs Swallows: Koshien Stadium 2 pm, 1 am EDT

Koyo Aoyagi (7-8, 3.69) vs Hirotoshi Takanashi (3-6, 4.34)

Carp vs Giants: Mazda Stadium 2 pm, 1 am EDT

Allen Kuri (8-5, 3.04) vs Shosei Togo (8-6, 2.92)

Baseball, Free, News

Japan Series 2019 Game 2

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It took Kan Otake 18 pro seasons to reach the Japan Series and about two minutes for it to go south on him. The veteran right-hander, who joined the Yomiuri Giants as a free agent after the Giants lost the 2013 series in seven games, got his first opportunity on Sunday.

The 36-year-old, who found new life this season in middle relief, entered the seventh inning of a scoreless game in relief of Cristopher Mercedes, only for an error to put the leadoff man on base after slugger Alfredo Despaigne struggled to make contact.

With pinch-runner Ukyo Shuto on first, the SoftBank Hawks pulled off a run and hit on a 2-1 pitch to Yurisbel Gracial that put runners on the corners with no outs.

Otake’s 15th pitch, a 2-0 fastball was up and got a little too much of the plate and way too much of the barrel. Nobuhiro Matsuda launched it out over the imposing distant center field wall to break up the scoreless game.

“That was pretty rare for me to hit one out to center field,” Matsuda said.

The Hawks looked to add on a run in the eighth by having two-time batting champion Seiichi Uchikawa sacrifice for the second straight game, but no more runs would cross until Yuki Yanagita and Shuhei Fukuda went deep in the eighth off a pair of big breaking balls.

“That (home run power) is really our bread and butter,” manager Kimiyasu Kudo said a day after asserting that the Hawks’ strength was their ability to play small ball.

Mercedes and Hawks rookie Rei Takahashi combined to make this the first game in the series’ 70-year history without a base runner through four innings, a stretch Matsuda ended with a two-out fifth-inning single. Mercedes got hitters to chase his slider out of the zone, while Takahashi confounded them with great run on his fastball and some wonderful movement with his screwball.

Hawks spreading the love

The Hawks’ home winning streak extends back to their 2011 championship against the Chunichi Dragons. This is their fifth series since and a victory this time will see them complete a grand slam of sorts by defeating all six Central League teams, having knocked off the Hanshin Tigers in 2014, the Yakult Swallows (2015), the DeNA BayStars (2017) and Hiroshima Carp (2018).

With both pitchers on, the game really turned on the defense, which helped Takahashi get away with a some good swings on his mistakes and kept him in the game as long as he was.

All in all it was a spectacle a great pitchers’ duel, combined with home runs and a late comeback as the Giants scored three runs in the ninth and put the tying run on deck before the game ended.

“Mercedes was really flying tonight,” Giants manager Tatsunori Hara said. “Nice pitching.”

“Our bullpen gave up hits on miss-located pitches. Next time we’ll have to pitch so we don’t throw them where they’re easy to hit.”