23.8KSeibu Lions pitcher Tatsuya Imai has taken a no-hitter late into the game in back-to-back starts.
Seibu Lions stars Tatsuya Imai and Kaima Taira combine to no-hit the SoftBank Hawks, Teruaki Sato seizes the NPB home run lead, and several top prospects hit their first career homers. All that and more in this week’s recap.
Tuesday (April 15)
Nippon-Ham-Lotte Highlights
The Fighters stunned the Marines with an eight-run sixth inning (which included two errors) en route to a 9-3 win.
Munetaka Murakami (Swallows) made his 2025 season debut, playing right field for the first time in his career. Unfortunately, he re-injured his oblique on a swing and had to exit the game in the ninth inning.
Koji Chikamoto’s late two-run homer lifted the Tigers over the Swallows in extras, 7-5.
Katsuki Azuma tossed eight shutout innings with ten punchouts as the BayStars blew out Masahiro Tanaka and the Giants, 9-1.
Friday (April 18)
Seibu’s combined no-hitter
The Lions threw a combined no-hitter against the Hawks. Tatsuya Imai went eight innings with nine strikeouts, sitting over 95 mph on his fastball, and Kaima Taira finished it with a perfect ninth. However, this didn’t count as an official no-no in the NPB history books because the Lions allowed a run on an RBI groundout (and it was combined).
Ryusei Terachi (Marines) hit two dingers, becoming the first teenager since Munetaka Murakami in 2019 to have a multi-homer game.
Saturday (April 19)
Chihiro Sumida’s shutout
Chihiro Sumida (Lions) threw a complete game shutout against the Hawks with nine strikeouts.
Kazuma Okamoto hit his sixth home run of the year as the Giants beat the Swallows, 6-4.
Sunday (April 20)
Teruaki Sato’s 7th home run
Teruaki Sato hit two homers to take the NPB lead with seven on the year as the Tigers took down the Carp, 8-1.
Shoma Kanemura (Fighters) threw his second complete game shutout of the season.
Jason Vosler (Dragons) hit his first NPB home run.
Ryui Itoh (Swallows) hit a walk-off single in extras against the Giants.
