Congratulations to Shohei Ohtani on becoming the first player in baseball history to have a 50/50 season! Did we expect anything less from the unicorn?
In NPB, the SoftBank Hawks are on the verge of clinching the Pacific League pennant with a magic number of one. They suffered a blow as superstar Kensuke Kondoh was deactivated with an ankle injury, but Kondoh and Yuki Yanagita could both return in time for the playoffs.
The Yomiuri Giants hoped to be in the same position to clinch the Central League, but the Hanshin Tigers are hot on their heels. The Tigers won a critical head-to-head matchup on Sunday, putting the defending Japan Series champions just one game back of first. It’s going to go down to the wire between these two historic rivals!
Hiroshima Carp shortstop Masaya Yano set a new NPB record for most pitches in a plate appearance when he drew a 22-pitch walk against Hideaki Wakui of the Dragons on Sunday. Yano fouled off 15 pitches! The previous NPB record was 19. That’s also more than Brandon’s Belt 21-pitch battle in 2018, which is the MLB record for longest AB. For those who joined the JapanBall tour this month, Yano is the same guy who hit an inside-the-park home run in Hiroshima!
Now, let’s look at the rest of this week’s action.
Monday
After losing 10-2 on Sunday, the DeNA BayStars got revenge with an 11-2 thrashing of the Hiroshima Carp in a crucial matchup of two teams fighting for the last CL postseason spot. Seibu Lions rookie Natsuki Takeuchi threw his first career complete game shutout against the Lotte Marines, striking out six.
Down 6-3 in the 9th, the Nippon-Ham Fighters fought valiantly to make it a one-run game against Rakuten Eagles closer Takahiro Norimoto. Framil Reyes, who hit his 20th homer earlier in the day, got the rally started with a single. But the comeback fell short as Yua Tamiya struck out on ball four with the bases loaded.
Tuesday
In Tohoku, the Eagles defeated the Marines in an important game with playoff implications. Down 3-0 in the 4th, Gregory Polanco and Neftali Soto hit back-to-back shots to draw Lotte even. It stayed that way until the 10th inning when Yudai Fujioka gave the Marines the lead with an RBI double. But Rakuten answered with two runs in the bottom of the 10th to walk it off against Yuki Kuniyoshi, who hadn’t allowed a run since May 26.
Wednesday
The gap between third and fourth place in both leagues closed even more. In the PL, Rakuten defeated Dallas Keuchel and the Marines 8-1 to get even in the standings. What a turnaround for the Eagles, who started the year 18-27! In the CL, the BayStars and Yomiuri Giants tied 2-2, while the Yakult Swallows beat the Carp 5-4 behind Munetaka Murakami’s 28th jack. The playoff race has never been tighter.
Thursday
Giants ace Shosei Togo threw his third consecutive scoreless start, going eight strong innings with seven Ks against the BayStars to lower his ERA to 1.98
Friday
Kohei Arihara (Hawks) fired eight shutout frames against the Orix Buffaloes. Munetaka Murakami crushed two more bombs to reach the 30-homer mark for the fifth time in his young career, but it wasn’t enough as the Dragons took down the Swallows in a battle of last-place CL squads. Franmil Reyes (Fighters) kept mashing with two jacks and six runs batted in against the Eagles.
Saturday
Teruaki Sato’s 10th-inning homer edged the Hanshin Tigers over the BayStars. The defending Japan Series champions are getting hot at the right time! In Osaka, flamethrower Shunpeita Yamashita (Buffaloes) dominated the Fighters with 12 strikeouts and 27 swinging strikes in six innings. His opponent, Koki Kitayama, outlasted him with eight shutout frames, but Orix came from behind to walk it off after he exited the game. Meanwhile, in Fukuoka, Ukyo Shuto stole his 40th base of the season, Hotaka Yamakawa hit his 250th career homer, and Tatsuru Yanagimachi hit a walk-off triple for the Hawks, bringing their magic number down to two.
Sunday
Not to be outdone by Yamashita, Orix Buffaloes ace Hiroya Miyagi struck out 13 batters across nine strong innings but took the loss against the Fighters. Roki Sasaki struck out 10 in seven innings to lead the Marines over the Lions. They’ve rebounded a bit from earlier in the week, opening up a 2.5-game cushion over the fourth-place Eagles again. Hiroto Saiki tight-roped out of a bases loaded jam in the 6th inning as the Tigers took down the Giants, 1-0, in a heated battle for the CL pennant.
This Week’s Team Records
Hanshin Tigers (4-1)
SoftBank Hawks (4-2)
Nippon-Ham Fighters (4-2)
Yomiuri Giants (3-2-1)
DeNA BayStars (3-2-1)
Chunichi Dragons (3-2)
Rakuten Eagles (3-3)
Lotte Marines (2-3)
Yakult Swallows (2-4)
Seibu Lions (1-3)
Orix Buffaloes (1-4)
Hiroshima Carp (1-5)
- NPB Standings
- Central League Hitting Leaders
- Central League Pitching Leaders
- Pacific League Hitting Leaders
- Pacific League Pitching Leaders
- Yuri’s NPB Pitcher Rankings
- Yakyu Cosmopolitan’s Website
