Tag Archives: Tsuyoshi Wada

NPB news: June 12, 2022

The CL won interleague for the second time in two years and the third time overall since 2005 with a 55-53 record despite being outscored 375-338.

Tsuyoshi Wada pitched against the Yakult Swallows with a shot at his 37th career interleague win, while a pitcher half his age who is garnering 10 times as many headlines, Roki Sasaki, has been deactivated for another 10-day stint on the inactive list.

Brian O’Grady whipped it up, while, Dietrich Enns, and Joe Gunkel also had days to remember, so let’s get to it.

Sunday’s games

Swallows 3, Hawks 0: At Fukukuoka Dome, 41-year-old Tsuyoshi Wada and 25-year-old Keiji Takahashi stole the show from Munetaka Murakami in a riveting pitchers’ duel. Wada, whose velocity is the best it’s been since he had Tommy John surgery in 2012, struck out eight while allowing two walks and one hit over six innings.

Continue reading NPB news: June 12, 2022

NPB news: May 29, 2022

The weekend’s interleague series at Pacific League parks wrapped up on Sunday with a clean PL sweep, the first time that’s happened in four years, when the Central League won all six games for the third time. The PL’s sweep was its fifth but its first in seven years.

The six wins, three in close games, three in blowouts, lifted the PL to 19-17 this year while outscoring the CL 147-118.

The day’s highlight was probably Takumi Kuriyama’s first pinch-hit sayonara home run in five years or perhaps it was the Fighters’ Kenshi Sugiya’s attempt to have a salmon body pillow answer “hero interview” questions while wearing one of those Fighters’ fish head hats. Maybe next time he’ll try the “kitsune dance” instead.

Sunday’s games

Lions 3, BayStars 2: At Seibu Dome, there were four home runs hit and the only run not scoring on the long ball was on a third-inning sac fly by Hotaka Yamakawa. Junichiro Kishi’s second homer made it 2-0 in the fourth, before Shugo Maki hit his 13th in the fifth and Keita Sano tied it with his fifth homer, in the sixth, off Dietrich Enns.

Continue reading NPB news: May 29, 2022