Tag Archives: Tsuyoshi Wada

NPB news: Sept. 25, 2023

Tsuyoshi Wada pitched SoftBank into second place on Monday, while Masahiro Tanaka and Hiromi Ito locked up in a pitching duel

Hawks 10, Marines 1: At Chiba Marine Stadium, Lotte went into a crucial game against SoftBank having deactivated seven players on COVID exemptions over three days including Roki Sasaki, and then ran into a good game from 42-year-old Tsuyoshi Wada (7-6), who struck out eight while allowing a run over five innings.

Kensuke Kondo hit a solo homer, his 24th, in the second off Kazuya Ojima (8-6), who must have only been a close contact when he was deactivated for COVID on Friday. Mike Brosseau, whom I interviewed for this week’s Japan Baseball Weekly Podcast, doubled to set up the tying run in the fourth.

SoftBank took the lead for good on 20-year-old Tomoya Inoue’s first major league homer leading off a three-run fourth. Inoue was the Hawks’ first-round 2020 draft signing after they failed to win the rights to Teruaki Sato in a four-way lottery. Back-to-back walks forced in another run before Kondo delivered a sac fly. The Hawks put this one in the bank in a five-run seventh.

Eagles 9, Fighters 1: At Kitahiroshima Taxpayers Burden Field, Masahiro Tanaka left with the score tied 1-1 after seven innings against Hiromi Ito (7-10), who was charged with five ninth-inning runs with veteran pinch-hitter Ginji Akaminai delivering a one-out RBI single to break the deadlock. Tanaka struck out seven without a walk, while allowing three hits.

The win lifted the Eagles into third place, one back of the Hawks while leading Lotte on winning-percentage points.

Deniers 1, Giants 0: At Yokohama Stadium, fourth-place Yomiuri fell three games back of DeNA after rookie shortstop Takuma Hayashi singled in Toshiro Miyazaki in the second inning off Yohander Méndez (5-5). DeNA’s Shinichi Onuki (4-4) struck out 11 over 6-1/3 innings, and the bullpen carried the rest of the load with Yuhei Morihara getting his 17th save.

Buffaloes 4, Lions 3: At Osaka UFO Dome, Seibu took a 3-2 fourth-inning lead after rookie Ryuhei Sotani walked the bases loaded with no outs, but a Marwin Gonzalez single and a Yuma Mune triple for his second RBI of the game tied it in the seventh. Former Lion Tomoya Mori broke the tie in the eighth with a solo homer, his 18th.

Dragons 2, Tigers 1: At Nagoya Dome, Teruaki Sato led off Hanshin’s second with his 22nd homer, but Tigers starter Shoki Murakami (10-6) had one tough inning in the home half. A one-out Takaya Ishikawa single and a Takuya Kinoshita double set up Ryuku Tsuchida’s two-run single, and that was all for the CL’s meaningless game of the night.

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NPB news: Aug. 10, 2023

Thursday, the Hawks and Eagles wheeled out their elder statesmen starting pitchers, Shosei Togo was unable to repeat his marathon heroics from a week earlier, while

Thursday’s games

Tigers 5, Giants 2: At Tokyo Ugly Dome, Shosei Togo (10-3) was unable to protect a late lead. A week after he threw 149 pitches in a 2-1 complete-game win over Yakult, Togo surrendered three seventh-inning runs.

Hisayoshi Chono doubled and scored on a double play to put Yomiuri up 1-0 in the third against Hiroto Saiki (6-5), who allowed two runs over 7-1/3 innings.

A week ago, Togo allowed a run through eight innings on 127 pitches, before putting the tying and go-ahead runners on base with one out and with 141 pitches on his odometer but still holding off the Swallows off for the complete-game victory.

Togo took a shutout into the seventh inning on Thursday having thrown 108 pitches. He threw a straight 1-2 fastball belt high and away and Sheldon Neuse doubled off the top of the wall. Togo then tried to make a tough play on a high hopper to the mound but failed to get the lead runner, putting two on with no outs after his 116th pitch.

The Tigers tied it when first baseman Sho Nakata booted a pickoff throw. Back-to-back strikeouts got Togo to two outs and 124 pitches. Like Neuse, Chikamoto fell behind before getting a straight 2-2 fastball on the inside corner that he drilled well back into the right-field stands that caused manager Tatsunori Hara to pull the plug on his starter after 129 pitches.

Hayato Sakamoto made it a 3-2 game leading off the Giants’ eighth by launching Saiki’s 99th pitch for a home run. Saiki left with one out and two one, but Ren Kajiya struck out Nakata with the tying run on third before Hiroya Shimamoto got the third out to preserve the lead.

Cancer survivor Fumihito Haraguchi lessened the suspense with a pinch-hit two-run homer in the ninth, and Kyle Keller earned his first save of the season.

Continue reading NPB news: Aug. 10, 2023