I know. It’s still early April. But last year’s league champions are both in the bottom half of the standings and last year’s last-place teams are in the top half of the standings. Lots of exciting baseball to recap, so let’s get to it!
Tuesday: The Yokohama DeNA Baystars scored four runs in the first inning against last year’s CL MVP, Shoki Murakami of the Hanshin Tigers, and went on to take the first game of the series, 5-3. They would drop the middle game but win the rubber match to win the series.
Wednesday: Saitama Seibu Lions’ 2023 first-round pick Natsuki Takeuchi made his debut and threw seven innings of one-hit ball, striking out seven and his teammates scored two runs in five innings against reigning PL Rookie of the Year Shumpeita Yamashita, blanking the Orix Buffaloes 3-0 in Saitama. They won two of the three games in the series.
Thursday: The Hiroshima Carp scored six runs in the game’s final two innings, overcoming a three-run deficit and defeating the Yakult Swallows 6-3 at Mazda Zoom Zoom Stadium. They won both games in the series (one was rained out) but would not score any more runs the rest of the week.
Friday: Kazuya Ojima of the Chiba Lotte Marines threw the season’s first complete-game shutout, going the distance on 107 pitches (four hits, one walk, six strikeouts) to defeat the Buffaloes 1-0. Hiroya Miyagi was the tough-luck loser, allowing that single run in his seven innings of work.
Saturday: Both Livan Moinelo (Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks) and Kosei Shoji (Rakuten Golden Eagles) had no-hitter bids through six innings. It looked like neither team was going to score, but neither pitcher went the distance due to pitch counts. Shoji surrendered a run in the seventh, and then both teams’ relievers combined to allow four runs aside. The Hawks would defeat the Eagles 5-4.
Sunday: As mentioned earlier, the Hiroshima Carp did not score a run the entire weekend series against the Chunichi Dragons. Yuya Yanagi (Friday), Hideaki Wakui (Saturday), Humberto Mejia (Sunday) along with the stellar Dragons’ bullpen gave the home crowd very little to get excited about as the Carp dropped all three games (1-0, 4-0, 1-0).
Good Week: Dragons (5-1)
Rough Week: Swallows (1-4)
For standings and leaderboards, check these links:
- NPB Standings
- Central League Hitting Leaders
- Central League Pitching Leaders
- Pacific League Hitting Leaders
- Pacific League Pitching Leaders
