Thursday’s games
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‘Stars relievers stuff Giants again
For the second straight night, a Yomiuri Giants hitter who had tied the game earlier with a home run came up with a chance to turn the game around with the bases loaded but were turned away by the BayStars bullpen. Two straight sixth-inning strikeouts stemmed the tide in DeNA’s 5-2 win at Yokohama Stadium.
The Giants loss completed a three-game sweep and prevented them from clinching the pennant in Yokohama. Their magic number, however, dropped to one after the Dragons lost to the Tigers.
Yoshiki Sunada struck out slugging on-base machine Yoshihiro Maru swinging on a 3-2 changeup and right-hander Shingo Hirata got Hiroyuki Nakajima looking at a 3-2 strike to enable starter Kentaro Taira (4-5) to earn the win after allowing a run in 5-1/3 innings.
Taira, who turned pro with the Giants, only pitched in one game for them before he was plucked from among the unprotected players on Yomiuri’s roster as compensation for the signing of free agent and current Toronto Blue Jay Shun Yamaguchi. This puts Taira in the same boat as his outgoing manager, Alex Ramirez, who finished his career in Yokohama after being discarded by the Giants, for whom he won two CL MVP awards.
And while Ramirez tends to be egregiously positive and would have congratulated his former skipper Tatsunori Hara had they clinched in Yokohama, you had to think that sweeping them and preventing them from celebrating in their home park had to be sweet.
Angel Sanchez (8-4) allowed two runs over six innings to take the tough loss and the BayStars piled three runs on after Sanchez was replaced with lefty Kazuto Taguchi. Tyler Austin and Neftali Soto each drove in a run in the inning.
Maru’s home run was his 26th of the season and the 200th of his career.
Jose Lopez had two hits, moving within two of 1,000 in Japan, a milestone that would make him one of three players with 1,000 in both MLB and NPB along with Ichiro Suzuki and Hideki Matsui.
Giants captain Hayato Sakamoto also had two hits, moving him within five of Japan’s iconic 2,000-hit milestone.
Nishi takes cue from Ono
Yuki Nishi (11-5) allowed six hits and a walk over the distance as the Hanshin Tigers took advantage of poor control from Yudai Ono (10-6) to beat the Chunichi Dragons lefty in a 3-1 win at Koshien Stadium.
The irony is that Nishi’s fourth complete game came against Ono, the guy they’e now calling “Mr. Complete Game” because he’s gone the distance in 10 of his 19 starts — a figure that seems incongruous in this age.
Nishi gave up the opening run, a leadoff shot in the first when Yota Kyoda barreled up a waist-high changeup and just cleared the fence at the right-field pole for his fifth home run. The right-hander overcame a two-out “triple” on a miss-played single to right and then shut down the Dragons the rest of the way.
Ono took the mound without his pin-point location but the Tigers only barreled up one of his mistakes in a two-run first. It went: bad pitch + bad swing = leadoff single; bad pitch + good swing = RBI double; tough pitch + good swing = infield single; and an RBI groundout when Yusuke Oyama chased Ball 4 but grounded to short.
The Tigers runs snapped Ono’s streak of 45 consecutive scoreless innings, and the loss dropped the Dragons into third place behind Hanshin.
Chono spoils Swallows’ rookie’s starting debut
Yakult Swallows 20-year-old rookie Yuto Kanakubo, their fifth pick in 2017, threw five scoreless innings in his first career start, but Hisashi Chono’s pinch-hit homer tied it in the Hiroshima Carp’s three-run seventh and both teams left the bases loaded late in the 3-3 10t-inning tie at Hiroshima’s Mazda Stadium.
Hawks speed past Marines
The SoftBank Hawks’ Ukyo Shuto set an NPB record by stealing a base in his 12th consecutive game and pinch-runner Go Kamamoto scored the winning run from second on a two-run wild pitch from closer Naoya Masuda (3-5) in a 4-3 win over the Lotte Marines at Fukuoka’s PayPay Dome.
Matt Moore went eight innings for the Hawks, allowing three runs, two earned, on five hits while striking out nine and walking none. Marines reliever Hirokazu Sawamura allowed the Hawks to close within a run in the eighth on a home run by Takuya Kai.
Eagles keep Lions at bay
The Rakuten Eagles took extra BP after the first pitch, hammering Zach Neal (5-8) for five runs over two innings on six hits and three walks in a 13-5 win at MetLife Dome over the Seibu Lions, who remain one game back of the Marines in the battle for the PL’s second and final playoff spot.
Rookie Eagles catcher Takaya Tanaka, a 28-year-old purchased from the Giants on Sept. 28 after two games with them, went 3-for-3 with his first career home run, a squeeze and three RBIs.
Fighters squeak past Buffaloes
Christian Villanueva tied it with a sixth-inning sacrifice fly, and Haruki Nishikawa manufactured the winning run in the 10th in a 4-3 win over the Orix Buffaloes at Sapporo Dome.
The Buffaloes’ back-of-the-bullpen duo, setup man Tyler Higgins and closer Brandon Dickson, kept the game tied 3-3 through nine with one perfect inning apiece. Nishikawa singled with one out and stole second. He slid headfirst and took third after catcher Torai Fushimi’s throw hit off him and into right field for an error. Ryo Watanabe then did his duty with a drive to right to score Nishikawa.
Bryan Rodriguez worked a scoreless inning of relief for the Fighters.
Viciedo out with shoulder injury
Chunichi Dragons’ first baseman Dayan Viciedo injured his left shoulder making a diving catch in the eighth inning of Wednesday’s game against the Hanshin Tigers at Koshien Stadium and was deactivated on Thursday.
The Dragons, who are the least forthcoming of Japan’s 12 teams regarding player injuries, said he was deactivated due to “insufficient upper body fitness.” This makes me wonder whether would use that catch-all to describe a player losing an arm in a traffic accident.
Active roster moves 10/29/2020
Deactivated players can be re-activated from 11/8
Central League
Activated
| Dragons | OF | 6 | Ryosuke Hirata |
Dectivated
| Tigers | P | 64 | Kentaro Kuwahara |
| Dragons | C | 52 | Takuma Kato |
| Dragons | IF | 66 | Dayan Viciedo |
Pacific League
Activated
| Eagles | P | 58 | Wataru Karashima |
| Marines | P | 15 | Manabu Mima |
| Fighters | P | 57 | Toshihiro Sugiura |
| Fighters | IF | 24 | Yuki Nomura |
Dectivated
| Eagles | P | 12 | Hiroki Kondo |
| Fighters | P | 36 | Drew VerHagen |
| Fighters | P | 49 | Katsuhiko Kumon |
| Buffaloes | P | 17 | Hirotoshi Masui |
Starting pitchers for Oct. 30, 2020
Pacific League
Fighters vs Buffaloes: Sapporo Dome 6 pm, 5 am EDT
Nick Martinez (2-6, 4.83) vs Taisuke Yamaoka (3-5, 2.69)
Lions vs Hawks: MetLife Dome 6 pm, 5 am EDT
Katsunori Hirai (5-4, 4.24) vs Nao Higashihama (8-1, 2.18)
Marines vs Eagles: Zozo Marine Stadium 6 pm, 5 am EDT
Kazuya Ojima (7-8, 3.84) vs Takayuki Kishi (5-0, 3.75)
Central League
Giants vs Swallows: Tokyo Dome 6 pm, 5 am EDT
Nobutaka Imamura (4-2, 3.48) vs Hiroaki Saiuchi (1-2, 4.18)
BayStars vs Tigers: Yokohama Stadium 6 pm, 5 am EDT
Masaya Kyoyama (2-1, 4.88) vs Joe Gunkel (1-4, 3.54)
Dragons vs Carp: Nagoya Dome 6 pm, 5 am EDT
Yariel Rodriguez (3-4, 4.38) vs Hiroki Tokoda (3-8, 5.37)
