927Shintaro Fujinami completed five innings in his first NPB start since 2022 (Photo: Chunichi Shimbun)
This week in Nippon Professional Baseball…Munetaka Murakami smacks a walk-off dinger, Raidel Martinez secures his 200th career save, Shoki Murakami gets his league-leading third shutout of the season, and Shintaro Fujinami makes his much-anticipated return to Japan (this time, in a DeNA BayStars jersey).
Plus, the Hanshin Tigers’ magic number to win the Central League is down to 22 while the SoftBank Hawks cling on to a three-game lead over the Nippon-Ham Fighters in the Pacific League. Let’s dig into the details!
Monday (August 11)
Shuta Tonosaki’s walk-off hit
Tyler Austin (BayStars) hit two home runs in a 9-4 loss to the Swallows.
Munetaka Murakami (Swallows) hit a walk-off two-run homer against the BayStars.
Shunya Morita (Giants) threw seven scoreless innings against the Dragons.
Wednesday (August 13)
Masahiro Tanaka’s five strikeouts
Luke Voit (Eagles) went 2 for 4 with a double and a homer in a 7-4 win over the Buffaloes.
Masahiro Tanaka (Giants) allowed no earned runs over five innings but took a no decision.
Thursday (August 14)
Franmil Reyes’ 23rd dinger
Franmil Reyes (Fighters) hit his 23rd homer in a 9-4 victory versus the Marines.
Neftali Soto (Marines) reached double-digit homers for the eighth consecutive season.
Friday (August 15)
Kosei Shoji’s eight strikeouts
Raidel Martinez (Giants) registered his 200th career save. He’s the fastest in NPB history to reach the milestone, doing so in just 348 games.
Hotaka Yamakawa (Hawks) hit a grand slam in a 6-1 win over the Marines.
Kosei Shoji (Eagles) struck out eight across seven innings in a 3-1 win against the Fighters.
Saturday (August 16)
Shoki Murakami’s CGSO
Shoki Murakami (Tigers) threw a complete game shutout with nine punchouts versus the Giants. He’s now tied with Hiroki Tokoda (Carp) for most shutouts (3) in the CL this season.
Yu Takeda (BayStars) tossed seven shutout frames in his NPB debut.
Maikel Franco (Eagles) homered twice in a 9-5 loss to the Fighters.
Sunday (August 17)
Taishi Hirooka’s walk-off in extras
Taishi Hirooka (Buffaloes) hit a walk-off homer to beat the Lions.
Livan Moinelo (Hawks) threw seven shutout innings with ten strikeouts to lower his NPB-best ERA to 1.13
Shintaro Fujinami (BayStars) fired five innings of one-run ball in his first NPB start since 2022. The opposing starting lineup consisted of nine left-handed hitters.
Dayan Viciedo (BayStars) went deep against the Dragons, his former team.
