Tag Archives: Takeya Nakamura

NPB news: Aug. 4, 2022

We had four games Thursday, after the Swallows and Dragons were rained out, and the BayStars and Carp were called in the top of the fourth on a night of thundershowers in the Tokyo area. The Hanshin Tigers, unfortunately, were rained on indoors.

In Sendai, five different Rakuten Eagles homered, while Takeya Nakamura turned back the clock and turned out the lights on the Buffaloes.

Thursday’s games

Eagles 10, Marines 1: At Miyagi Stadium, Ginjiro Sumitani opened the scoring off Fumiya Motomae () with a two-run second-inning homer, his fourth. Takero Okajima singled in a run with one out, Ryosuke Tatsumi squeezed in another, Daichi Suzuki hit a two-run homer, his third, Eigoro Mogi hit his fifth. Sumitani walked and Haruki Nishikawa hit his seventh.

Hiroaki Shimauchi homered to lead off the Eagles’ fourth. Takayuki Kishi () retired 14 of the first 16 batters he faced before Hiromi Oka tripled and scored on an Adeiny Hechavarria sac fly.

Lions 3, Buffaloes 2: At Seibu Dome, six-time PL home run leader Takeya Nakamura opened the scoring with his fifth homer of the season, a two-run fourth-inning shot off Sachiya Yamasaki. With the score tied 2-2 and one out in the ninth, Nakamura, whose nickname “Okawari-kun” means the kid who wants another helping, came back for seconds, ending the game with a solo homer off Jacob Waguespack (2-5).

Seibu’s Wataru Matsumoto faced a minimum of trouble through four innings but one-out singles by Joe McCarthy and Kotaro Kurebayashi and a hit batsman loaded the bases and Ryoichi Adachi singled in two. Matsumoto pitched out of two-on no-out jam in the sixth but finished with a 1-2-3 seventh. Two relievers retired six of the seven batters they faced to set up Nakamura’s sayonara homer.

Giants 7, Tigers 0: At Tokyo Dome, rookie Iori Yamasaki (3-3) allowed three hits over eight innings, singled in the Giants’ fourth run in a five-run second to chase Aaron Wilkerson (5-5) and retired the final 15 batters he faced.

The win was the Giants’ first in three games since they canceled six games after most of their roster was infected with the coronavirus.

Yoshihiro Maru hit one of the Giants’ late home runs, making it the seventh straight season the two-time CL MVP has hit 20 or more.

Giants-TIgers highlights

Fighters 3, Hawks 3, 12 innings: At Sapporo Dome, Colin Rea walked four batters through four innings, but did not allow a hit until Ryusei Sato and Yuki Umebayashi singled to open the fifth. A sacrifice and a groundout trimmed the Hawks’ lead to 3-1 before Chusei Mannami tied it with his 11th home run.

Ukyo Shuto hit the game’s first pitch for his fourth home run off Toshihiro Sugiura, who left the bases loaded in the second. The Hawks loaded the bases with no outs in the third on singles by Hikaru Kawase and Alfredo Despaigne and a fielder’s choice before Taisei Makhihara’s single made it 3-0.

Conner Menez got the first out when catcher Umebayashi picked off Despaigne and once more ended an inning with the bases jammed with Hawks. Menez worked two scoreless innings, as did Kosei Yoshida, as a host of relievers kept the Hawks off the bases.

After the game was tied, it was the Fighters’ turn to waste opportunities, stranding five runners over the next three innings and leaving the bases loaded in the 10th.

Friday’s starting pitchers

Lions vs Marines: Seibu Dome 6 pm, 5 am EDT

Tatsuya Imai (2-1, 2.88) vs Ayumu Ishikawa (6-4, 2.36)

Buffaloes vs Fighters: Osaka Dome 6 pm, 5 am EDT

Daichi Takeyasu (0-0, 2.00) vs Cody Ponce (2-2, 2.90)

Hawks vs Eagles: Fukuoka Dome 6 pm, 5 am EDT

Kazuki Sugiyama (1-3, 7.71) vs Ryota Takinaka (2-6, 3.53)

Swallows vs Giants: Jingu Stadium 6 pm, 5 am EDT

Yasuhiro Ogawa (5-5, 2.59) vs Kenshin Hotta (1-2, 7.20)

Dragons vs BayStars: Nagoya Dome 6 pm, 5 am EDT

Kotaro Ueda (0-3, 4.50) vs Shinichi Onuki (7-4, 2.36)

Carp vs Tigers: Hiroshima Citizen’s Stadium 6 pm, 5 am EDT

Daichi Osera (7-6, 4.12) vs Yuki Nishi (7-6, 2.05)

Active roster moves 8/4/2022

Deactivated players can be re-activated from 8/14

Central League

Activated

TigersP37Masaki Oyokawa
TigersP46Hiroya Shimamoto
TigersP52Aaron Wilkerson
DragonsP22Yudai Ono
BayStarsP14Kenta Ishida

Dectivated

SwallowsP47Keiji Takahashi
TigersP92Yuta Watanabe
TigersOF24Mel Rojas Jr.
CarpP28Hiroki Tokoda

Pacific League

Activated

MarinesP49Fumiya Motomae
MarinesP92Yuki Kuniyoshi
MarinesIF13Taiga Hirasawa
HawksP26Colin Rea
FightersP22Toshihiro Sugiura
LionsP17Wataru Matsumoto
LionsP54Burch Smith

Dectivated

MarinesP45Tayron Guerrero
MarinesC22Tatsuhiro Tamura
HawksIF27Yurisbel Gracial
LionsP40Ichiro Tamura

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NPB 2020 Nov. 7

Saturday’s games

Other news

Marines recruit leads charge to playoffs

Rookie Kyota Fujiwara’s three-run home run brought the Lotte Marines from a run down in a 4-3 win over the Orix Buffaloes that put them in pole position to clinch a playoff spot on Sunday.

Kota Futaki (9-3) allowed a run in the first on a Steven Moya RBI single but held the Buffaloes off the board after that at Chiba’s Zozo Marine Stadium.

Trailing 1-0 in the fourth Fujiwara lined a pitch into the right-field stands with two on to make it 3-1. Frank Herrmann allowed one run in relief and Naoya Masuda another in the ninth. The closer had to sit through a short rain delay with two outs and the tying run on second but came back to earn his 31st save.

The win moves Lotte a half-game ahead of the Seibu Lions before the two teams square off in Chiba on Sunday. A Lotte loss or tie will keep the PL’s postseason picture in the dark until the teams finish their schedule on Monday. A Marines win will send them into the postseason for the first time since 2016.

Nakamura scores hat-trick in Lions comeback

Takeya Nakamura scored three runs as the Seibu Lions overcame a five-run first-inning deficit to earn a 6-6 10-inning tie against the Rakuten Eagles at Sendai’s Rakuten Seimei Park Miyagi on Saturday afternoon.

Seibu starting pitcher Tatsuya Imai surrendered six runs in jus two-thirds of an inning, but seven Seibu relievers combined to work 9-1/3 scoreless innings. Reed Garrett, fireballing rookie Kaima Taira and closer Tatsushi Masuda notched nine of the Lions’ 10 strikeouts in a combined 4-2/3 innings of work.

Shuta Tonosaki singled in a run for the Lions in the first and brought them to within a run when he led off the seventh by homering off D.J. Johnson. Nakamura doubled with one out and scored on Cory Spangenberg’s single to tie it.

Alan Busenitz worked a scoreless eighth for the Eagles, while Yuki Matsui struck out three over two scoreless innings to ensure Rakuten’s final game of the season did not end in defeat.

Akiyama wins it for Tigers

Takumi Akiyama (11-3) worked seven-plus innings, backed by an RBI double from Seiya Kinami and Yusuke Oyama’s 28th home run in the Hanshin Tigers’ 2-0 win over the Hiroshima Carp at Hiroshima’s Mazda Stadium.

Akiyama left after surrendering his third hit of the game to open the eighth. Forty-one-year-old lefty Atsushi Nomi, who is leaving the Tigers after the season for an uncertain future, “retired” 41-year-old catcher Yoshiyuki Ishihara, who is leaving the game at season’s end.

With the day’s sentimental journeys attended to, Jon Edwards entered an induced an inning-ending double play.

Robert Suarez earned his 25th save for the Tigers.

Sakamoto moves within 1 hit of 2,000

Two of the Central League’s biggest sluggers each went deep twice but they were overshadowed by the buzz surrounding Hayato Sakamoto’s pursuit of 2,000 hits in the Yomiuri Giants’ 6-2 win over the Yakult Swallows at Tokyo Dome.

Sakamoto, who turns 32 in December, recorded his 1,999th career hit in the third inning before Kazuma Okamoto extended his lead in the CL home run race with his 30th. Sakamoto is 53rd on Nippon Professional Baseball’s all-time hit list, and his 2,000th will tie him with former Lotte Marine Kazuya Fukuura.

The 24-year-old Okamoto has now hit 30 home runs in three straight seasons. Both Swallows runs came on 20-year-old Munetaka Murakami’s 27th and 28th home runs.

Iwakuma goes out a Giant

Are you kidding me? Hisashi Iwakuma, who ended his pro career in a Yomiuri Giants uniform after throwing two innings in the Eastern League for them in 2019, was given a hero’s sendoff at Tokyo Dome, with his teammates all wearing “Thanks Iwakuma” T-shirts.

Active roster moves 11/6/2020

Deactivated players can be re-activated from 11/16

Central League

Activated

DragonsP19Kazuki Yoshimi
SwallowsP16Juri Hara
SwallowsP47Keiji Takahashi

Dectivated

GiantsP96Nattino Diplan
BayStarsP53Spencer Patton
BayStarsP94Takamasa Kasai
BayStarsIF2Jose Lopez
BayStarsIF4Yukiya Ito
BayStarsIF6Keito Mori
BayStarsIF23Tyler Austin
TigersP16Yuki Nishi
TigersP34Masaki Tanigawa
CarpP57Norihiko Tanaka
CarpIF69Ryutaro Hatsuki
CarpOF59Minoru Omori
SwallowsP15Yuma Oshita
SwallowsP48Yuto Kanakubo

Pacific League

Activated

EaglesIF26Naoto Watanabe
BuffaloesP13Hiroya Miyagi
BuffaloesC62Katsuki Yamazaki

Dectivated

None

Starting pitchers for Nov. 8, 2020

Pacific League

Eagles vs Lions: Rakuten Seimei Park Miyagi 2 pm, 1 am EDT

Ryota Takinaka (2-1, 3.18) vs Tatsuya Imai (3-4, 5.31)

Marines vs Buffaloes: Zozo Marine Stadium 6 pm, 5 am EDT

Kota Futaki (8-3, 3.53) vs Tsubasa Sakakibara (1-3, 4.89)

Central League

Giants vs Swallows: Tokyo Dome 6 pm, 5 am EDT

Nobutaka Imamura (4-2, 3.43) vs Yasuhiro Ogawa (10-7, 4.50)

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

Yuta Nakamura (3-3, 2.21) vs Takumi Akiyama (10-3, 3.09)