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NPB games, news of Aug. 9, 2019

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Because of the upcoming national holiday on Monday, when Japan celebrates mountains, the Pacific League took Friday off, leaving just three games on the NPB calendar.

A lot of the focus was on Yokohama Stadium, where a season-ending injury to third baseman Toshiro Miyazaki saw more creativity from Japan’s most creative manager, Alex Ramirez.

Ramirez’s response was to play big-hitting left fielder Yoshitomo Tsutsugo at third for the first time in five years and batted him second again — something that seriously annoys Japan’s talking-heads. The move allowed Ramirez to get one of his favorite prospects, 21-year-old slugging outfielder Seiya Hosokawa into the starting lineup in left. If that wasn’t bad enough for the late-night talk guys, Ramirez batted his starting pitcher eighth.

Central League

BayStars 10, Dragons 6

At Yokohama Stadium, Yoshitomo Tsutsugo rescued what looked like it was going to be a tough game for DeNA with two homers, including a grand slam, and a two-run single in a come-from-behind win over Chunichi.

BayStars starter Kentaro Taira (5-2) allowed three runs over five innings despite allowing eight hits and a walk. He surrendered a two-run, first-inning homer to Dayan Viciedo, but pitched out of a bases-loaded situation in the second.

Giants 10, Swallows 9, 10 innings

At Tokyo Dome, Yomiuri came from behind to beat Yakult on a Yoshiyuki Kamei sacrifice fly after trailing 7-0. The win allowed the Giants to cling to their one-game CL lead over DeNA.

On further review

The Giants overcame a seven-run deficit with four runs coming on two-run Kazuma Okamoto home runs. His one-out shot in the eighth should have come with the bases empty, but NPB’s video review system broke again.

Giants base runner Shingo Ishikawa was ruled safe when the Swallows tried to double him off first on a fly out to left. The ball was clearly in the first baseman’s glove before the runner’s foot got to the bag. But despite pleas from NPB umpires, umps have only tiny monitors under the stands to evaluate the plays. As a result, they often have no clue what the replays show and can’t make clear judgments about calls that everyone at home and in the stands have a better view of.

Analyst Suguru Egawa, a former Giant, said, “It certainly looks like he’s out.”

Seconds later when the umps came out with their decision, Egawa said, “Well, I guess he got his foot in there.”

That’s the state of replay in NPB. It’s a whole lot better than it used to be, when there was no recourse for terrible calls, but on close calls, forget it.

As a result, the call at first was upheld. Yoshihiro Maru singled, and Okamoto tied it with a three-run home run.

Hayato Sakamoto started the Giants’ counterattack in the fourth inning, when he reached 30 home runs for the first time since 2010.

Game highlights are HERE.

Carp Tigers

At Kyocera Dome, Daichi Osera (9-6) bounced back from a four-run nightmare of a second inning to work six, and Alejandro Mejia hit his second three-run homer in a week to put Hiroshima in front in a win over Hanshin.

Game highlights are HERE.

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NPB umps singing new tune

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Osamu Ino
Osamu Ino, NPB’s umpiring technical committee chairman.

A few years ago, a senior NPB umpire told me video review was not necessary or practical in Japan because,

  • Umpires rarely made mistakes.
  • Umpires could see things video couldn’t.
  • Owners would never absorb the costs of installing enough cameras to make such a system work.

A few days before NPB unveiled the 2019 upgrade to its video challenge format, known as the “request system,” Osamu Ino, who chairs NPB’s umpiring technical committee, explained that 80 percent of the umpires were at first opposed to the new system.

They expected heckling and abuse, loss of face, you name it.

Having watched lengthy video reviews on the three plays umpires were allowed to check on their own, home runs, catches against the outfield wall and plays at the plate, a lot of NPB watchers expected games to get even slower. Actually 2017 had seen the fastest games since 2012.

That was the last of a two-year period of ultra-dead baseballs that caused offense to plummet and resulted in a coup de e’tat to ouster then commissioner Ryozo Kato.

Since then offense and game times had been on the rise. 2018 sawa more offense than 2017, with game times jumping from an average of 3:13 to 3:18. Not great but not the catastrophe many expected.

Instead, umpires, players and managers moved on with the game, fans watched the close plays replayed on the big screens, something that had been taboo in Japanese sports up to that point, and everyone liked it.

There were complaints about the quality of the equipment available to umpires and the number of cameras — indeed I heard at least two players say, “If you’re not going to have enough cameras in all the parks don’t do it at all.” That struck me as a dumb comment then and a dumb comment now — although owners have proven themselves too cheap to provide the umpires with decent monitors for their reviews.

According to Ino, the umps went from 80 percent disapproval when they first heard of the system at the end of 2017, to 50 percent before the start of the season, to 100 percent after the season.

You can find my related story in the Japan Times here.