Tag Archives: Zoilo Almonte

NPB 2020 OCT. 13

Tuesday’s games

Other news

Kuri holds off Giants

Allen Kuri escaped a one-out bases-loaded jam on a questionable called third strike against Zelous Wheeler and allowed a run over eight innings in the Hiroshima Carp’s 4-3 win over the Yomiuri Giants at Tokyo Dome on Tuesday.

Giants ace Tomoyuki Sugano (13-1) took the loss as he failed to set a record by winning his 14th straight decision to start the season.

Kuri (6-5) allowed six hits, four with one out in the sixth, and one walk while striking out five. For the second straight start, Sugan struggled with his command. He allowed four runs, three earned, over six innings. He gave up seven hits, walked two, and struck out five.

Ryuhei Matsuyama doubled and scored the game’s first run in the second, and singled Hiroshima’s second run, in the Carp’s three-run sixth.

Yoshihiro Maru and Wheeler hit back-to-back homers to open the ninth against closer Geronimo Franzua, who notched his 14th save.

In his postgame hero interview, the interviewer, supplied by the Giants asked Kuri about his game and included his thoughts about his opponent’s winning streak.

  • Q: You were aware of Sugano and his record weren’t you?
  • Kuri: “I approach games with a challenger’s mentality, and really only focus on one batter at a time.”
  • Q: It must have been a big thing for you and for your team to end Sugano’s record win streak, wasn’t it?
  • Kuri: “I really wasn’t aware of his record, and so I wasn’t really conscious of it. Thinking about it afterward, I’m glad we won.”

Giants-Carp highlights

Kyoda ignites Dragons’ fire

No. 2 hitter Yota Kyoda doubled, walked and singled to ignite three run-scoring innings as Zoilo Almonte and Dayan Viciedo drove in two runs apiece in the Chunichi Dragons’ 4-2 win over the Hanshin Tigers at Nagoya Dome.

Tigers cleanup hitter Yusuke Oyama took over the CL home run lead with a two-run blast in the first off Akiyoshi Katsuno (4-4), but the Dragons tied it in the home half against tough lefty Haruto Takahashi (4-4).

Viciedo doubled in the tying run in the first and Almonte doubled in the go-ahead run in the third. Viciedo’s second RBI double made it 4-2 in the fifth.

Daisuke Sobue faced Oyama with two outs and the tying runs on base in the eighth but struck him out to end the inning, and Raidel Martinez recorded his 19th save.

BayStars wallop Swallows

The DeNA BayStars responded to another article ripping manager Alex Ramirez with a three-home run game in an 8-1 win over the Yakult Swallows at Tokyo’s Jingu Stadium.

Tyler Austin doubled off the wall and scored in the sixth against Swallows starter Hirotoshi Takanashi (3-5) on Keita Sano’s 17th home run. Toshiro Miyazaki hit his 14th for the BayStars and Yamato Maeda his third.

Shinichi Onuki (9-4) allowed a run over six innings. He allowed five hits and struck out eight without a walk.

Kasaya outduels Yamamoto

Unheralded lefty Shunsuke Kasaya (3-3) allowed a hit and two walks over five scoreless innings, allowing the SoftBank Hawks to scrape out a 2-0 win against the Orix Buffaloes at Osaka’s Kyocera Dome.

Orix ace Yoshinobu Yamamoto (8-4) allowed one run on five hits and two walks over eight innings while striking out seven. No. 9 hitter Hikaru Kawase and light-hitting leadoff man Ukyo Shuto put good swings on a pair of straight fastballs in the third inning to account for the Hawks’ first run.

Rei Takahashi, Sho Iwasaki, Livan Moinelo and Yuito Mori each worked one scoreless inning to close it out.

Marines battle back

Shuhei Fukuda opened the game with a big play in center field and singled with one out in the ninth and scored the winning run to end it as Seiya Inoue doubled him home to lift the Lotte Marines to a 4-3 walk-off win over the Rakuten Eagles at Chiba’s Zozo Marine Stadium.

Eagles ace Takahiro Norimoto allowed two runs over seven innings, but Kazuhisa Makita let in the tying run in the eighth and closer Alan Busenitz (1-2) took the loss in the ninth.

The Eagles took a one-run lead in the first when Daichi Suzuki homered off starter Ayumu Ishikawa after Fukuda made a diving catch in the gap to rob rookie Hiroto Kobukata of a leadoff hit.

Takahashi, Garrett blank Fighters

Kona Takahashi allowed three walks and four hits over eight innings and Reed Garrett completed the five-hit shutout as the Seibu Lions scored early and often in a 7-0 win over the Nippon Ham Fighters at Sapporo Dome.

Takahashi improved to 7-8, while Fighters starter Naoyuki Uwasawa (8-5) allowed five runs over six innings.

Active roster moves 10/13/2020

Deactivated players can be re-activated from 10/23

Central League

Activated

GiantsIF00Daiki Yoshikawa
GiantsIF68Kazuya Katsuki

Dectivated

GiantsIF0Daiki Masuda
GiantsOF88Gerardo Parra

Pacific League

Activated

HawksC62Takashi Umino
MarinesOF10Shohei Kato

Dectivated

None

Starting pitchers for Oct. 14, 2020

Pacific League

Fighters vs Lions: Sapporo Dome 6 pm, 5 am EDT

Drew VerHagen (6-5, 3.78) vs Shota Hamaya (2-1, 5.97)

Marines vs Eagles: Zozo Marine Stadium 6 pm, 5 am EDT

Chen Wei-yin (-) vs Hideaki Wakui (10-3, 3.06)

Buffaloes vs Hawks: Kyocera Dome 6 pm, 5 am EDT

Sachiya Yamasaki (4-4, 4.98) vs Kodai Senga (7-6, 2.82)

Central League

Giants vs Carp: Tokyo Dome 6 pm, 5 am EDT

Yuki Takahashi (0-0, 3.38) vs Atsushi Endo (3-4, 4.29)

Swallows vs BayStars: Jingu Stadium 6 pm, 5 am EDT

Masanori Ishikawa (1-6, 4.55) vs Yuya Sakamoto (3-1, 5.83)

Dragons vs Tigers: Nagoya Dome 6 pm, 5 am EDT

Yudai Ono (8-5, 2.07) vs Koyo Aoyagi (6-7, 4.10)

NPB 2020 Oct. 12

Monday’s games

PL

  • Eagles vs Lions, postponed, rain

Other news

Fukutani bats, pitches Dragons to victory

Right-hander Koji Fukutani, a former first-round pick who spent his first six pro seasons as a reliever, allowed two runs over six innings and doubled in the go-ahead run for the Chunichi Dragons in their 3-2 win over the Yomiuri Giants at Nagoya Dome.

Fukutani (6-2) allowed six hits but no walks while striking out two, came up in the second with the game tied 2-2 after Toshiki Abe’s 10th homer of the season. Catcher Takuya Kinoshita walked, and Fukutani doubled him home.

“He is a good hitter,” Dragons manager Tsuyoshi Yoda said of Fukutani, whose first career double improved his career batting to 3-for-21. “He was really working hard before the game in BP.”

Fukutani said he went up looking for a first-pitch fastball from Toshiki Sakurai (2-4).

“I was looking for one but I didn’t imagine I was going to hit it,” Fukutani said of an inside-out swing that drove a low pitch into the gap in right-center. “I’ve been swinging the bat a lot recently, but I was beginning to think I was incapable of squaring a pitch up.”

“The instant I hit, I felt, ‘I’ve never hit a ball so well in my life.'”

The right-hander surrendered back-to-back hits in the Giants’ third, but got a double play to defuse the would-be rally. Zoilo Almonte prevented the Giants from tying it in the sixth when he robbed Yoshihiro Maru of a two-out RBI double in left.

“The way Almonte and (second baseman) Abe were picking it today, gave me courage. They made me feel that all I had to do was make my pitches and things were going to work out,” Fukutani said.

Lefty Hiroto Fuku, and right-handers Daisuke Sobue and Raidel Martinez protected the lead over the final three innings, with Martinez turning in an electrifying ninth as he struck out three and walked one to earn his 18th save.

Active roster moves 10/12/2020

Deactivated players can be re-activated from 10/22

Central League

Activated

TigersP17Yuta Iwasada
TigersP67Suguru Iwazaki

Dectivated

TigersP20Kenichi Nakata
TigersC39Kenya Nagasaka

Pacific League

Activated

None

Dectivated

HawksC12Hiroaki Takaya
MarinesOF61Kazuma Mike
BuffaloesP17Hirotoshi Masui

Starting pitchers for Oct. 13, 2020

Pacific League

Fighters vs Lions: Sapporo Dome 6 pm, 5 am EDT

Naoyuki Uwasawa (8-4, 2.30) vs Kona Takahashi (6-8, 4.21)

Marines vs Eagles: Zozo Marine Stadium 6 pm, 5 am EDT

Ayumu Ishikawa (7-4, 4.17) vs Takahiro Norimoto (5-5, 3.95)

Buffaloes vs Hawks: Kyocera Dome 6 pm, 5 am EDT

Yoshinobu Yamamoto (8-3, 2.26) vs Shunsuke Kasaya (2-3, 3.29)

Central League

Giants vs Carp: Tokyo Dome 6 pm, 5 am EDT

Tomoyuki Sugano (13-0, 1.89) vs Allen Kuri (5-5, 3.65)

Swallows vs BayStars: Jingu Stadium 6 pm, 5 am EDT

Hirotoshi Takanashi (3-4, 4.74) vs Shinichi Onuki (8-4, 2.26)

Dragons vs Tigers: Nagoya Dome 6 pm, 5 am EDT

Akiyoshi Katsuno (3-4, 3.78) vs Haruto Takahashi (4-3, 2.07)