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NPB games, news of Aug. 10, 2019

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Pacific League

Hawks 8, Fighters 4

At Yafuoku Dome, Kohei Arihara (11-6) blew a 4-0 lead as Nippon Ham lost to league-leading SoftBank. Kodai Senga (11-4) struck out 10 while walking two and allowing four runs over seven innings.

Ryo Watanabe capped a four-run Fighters’ fourth with a three-run home run, but Senga retired seven of the last eight batters he faced to earn the win.

Shuhei Fukuda got the Hawks on the board in the sixth, walking, stealing second and scoring on a single, and Arihara surrendered two, two-out RBI singles. The Fighters’ defense fell apart in a three-run seventh and that was the ball game.

Game highlights are HERE.

Lions 8, Marines 3

At Zozo Marine Stadium, Kona Takahashi (8-5) repeatedly pitched out of trouble to allow three runs, two earned, over 6-2/3 innings, while Takeya Nakamura drove in three runs and Sosuke Genda — back at short for the first time in six games — drove in two as Seibu walloped Lotte, hammering Kota Futaki (6-8) for six runs over four innings.

Game highlights are HERE.

Buffaloes 8, Eagles 4

At Rakuten Seimei Park, Rakuten’s pitching played a similar refrain as starter Shu Sugahara cruised through the opposing order twice and then got hammered. Orix overcame a 2-0 deficit by scoring two off Sugahara and three more off reliever Yuya Kubo (2-1) in the sixth.

The Buffaloes started journeyman Sachiya Yamasaki, who was fortunate to allow just two runs over four innings because scheduled starter and PL ERA leader Yoshinobu Yamamoto felt discomfort in his left oblique muscles and was taken to a hospital in Sendai to be examined.

Game highlights are HERE.

Central League

Giants 8, Swallows 4

At Tokyo Dome, Yakult starter Tomoya Hoshi (0-1) walked six batters and allowed six runs in 1-2/3 innings and Yomiuri held on to win its third straight. Hayato Sakamoto tied his career-high with his 31st home run to open the scoring and Alex Guerrero doubled in two runs in the Giants’ three-run first.

Toshiki Sakurai (6-2) allowed two runs over six innings to earn the win for the Giants.

Game highlights are HERE.

BayStars 5, Dragons 4

At Yokohama Stadium, rookie Yukiya Ito started at second and DeNA’s second draft pick out of Rissho University homered twice, tying it with a two-run shot in the eighth as the BayStars battled back from a 4-0 deficit to beat Chunichi.

Tomo Otosaka won it in the ninth with a sacrifice fly. Yamato Maeda, who has a solid portfolio of late-inning heroics this season, led off the ninth with a double and scored the winning run.

Talking the talk

Ito proved he knows how to speak hero, given the chance to stand on the postgame heroes podium. Here’s an excerpt.

“My name’s Yukiya Ito. (cheers from the crowd). I like Korean barbecue set meals.”

“I failed to produce in my first two at-bats, so I wanted to expand our scoring chance after that (translation: I wasn’t trying to hit home runs, but rather I was focussed only on playing small ball).”

In a country where children are told that trying to hit home runs is wrong, saying you tried to hit a home run is almost the same as Babe Ruth asserting he called his shot in the World Series and is a fundamental of yakyu doubletalk.

Game highlights are HERE.

Tigers 6, Carp 5

At Kyocera Dome, Hiroshima closer Geronimo Franzua blew a two-run, ninth-inning lead as Yusuke Oyama followed a leadoff single and a walk with a three-run sayonara home run to win it for Hanshin.

Game highlights are HERE.

Baseball, News, Paid Content

NPB games, news of June 28, 2019

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League play resumed in Japan on Friday with four games. All six Pacific League teams were in action, while the Hiroshima Carp, who fell out of first place during interleague were in Yokohama in the Central League’s only game.

Pacific League

Hawks 7, Fighters 5

At Sapporo Dome, Kodai Senga and Kohei Arihara, the two hottest PL pitchers from the start of the season, showed some superb pitches, but were inconsistent in their location in a pitcher’s duel that turned out nothing like the announcers promised in the buildup.

Senga walked four and struck out a season-low five and gave up a bunch of hard-hit balls that allowed him to only give up one run over six innings.

Arihara, who started the season as a machine, getting everybody to swing and miss at his changeup, also gave up some shots while walking three and striking out four as he allowed three runs over six innings.

Here are the Hawks, Fighters highlights.

Marines 6, Eagles 5

At Rakuten Seimei Park, Rakuten had to call on closer Yuki Matsui, who did not see action on Tuesday because they wanted to give him six days off before pitching again perhaps?

Anyway, the lefty couldn’t find the strike zone. He got the first two batters out after falling behind but walked the next three. Afterward he said, “I should have been tougher with the bases loaded.”

Here are Marines, Eagles highlights.

Buffaloes 4, Lions 0

At Metlife Dome, Yoshinobu Yamamoto struck out 11 and walked two to win a tight pitchers’ duel with the Lions’ Tatsuya Ishii, who allowed one run over eight innings. It was the 20-year-old Yamamoto’s first career shutout and his first win since May 28.

Here are the Buffaloes-Lions highlights.

Central League

BayStars 13, Carp 3

At Yokohama Stadium, Jose Lopez and Yoshitomo Tsutsugo ruined my story about Alejandro Mejia’s first big game of the season after getting promoted back from Hiroshima’s farm team.

Lopez and Tsutsugo each belted a pair of homers while headline writers discarded themes such as “BayStars drop bombs on Hiroshima,” while Neftali Soto, last year’s CL champ, hit his league-leading 23rd home run.

Alejandro Mejia

My minor league season records go back to 1991, and during that span only eight players have hit 19 or more home runs in a Western League season. The WL is a notorious pitcher’s league with huge parks and low averages. Of those eight, four have become certified power hitters in NPB, Takahiro Okada, Nobuhiko Matsunaka, Kenji Jojima and Xavier Batista. Batista probably had the most impressive run of any of those guys, hitting 21 in 177 at-bats two years ago.

Mejia hit 20 last year in 300 plate appearances and joined the Carp first team at the end of interleague having hit 19 in 201 at-bats this spring in the minors.

In Friday’s game, Mejia, playing third with Batista at first, went 3-for-4 with a home run. So that’s a start after going hitless in three at-bats in Wednesday’s interleague finale against Rakuten.