Yoshinobu Yamamoto became the 86th pitcher to throw a no-hit shutout in Japanese pro baseball on Saturday, giving us a record four no-hitters in a season before July and the most since four were thrown in 1943, one shy of the record in 1940 in the deadest of Japan’s dead-ball eras.
Of course, we also had Yudai Ono taking a perfect game into the 10th and Roki Sasaki throwing eight perfect innings in May, so it’s been some season, huh?
Shall we get started?
Saturday’s games
Buffaloes 2, Lions 0: At Seibu Dome, Yoshinobu Yamamoto (7-3) threw 102 pitches, walked one and struck out nine for his first career no-hitter. He threw 20 first-pitch strikes to the 28 batters he faced and only two batters got to three balls against him.
The Central League didn’t let the Pacific League rest on its laurels on Thursday, answering the PL’s 5-1 interleague Wednesday with a 5-1 mark the day after, although it required a big comeback from Yakult to attain that.
Elsewhere, the players union met with NPB in a working session and presented its ideas for an “active player draft” that ideally would give some players without opportunities at their present clubs another chance with a different team. The union also submitted a list of questions about NPB’s umpiring policies so that players can be better informed of how things stand. This was a response to Roki Sasaki‘s May 24 confrontation with umpire Kazuyuki Shirai.
Thursday’s games
Swallows 7, Marines 3: At Jingu Stadium, Yakult overcame an early three-run deficit to maintain their three-game CL lead.
Yakult lefty Andrew Suarez threw a bunch of first-inning strikes with mistakes in the heart of the zone and it cost him three runs.
