On this day, April 1, we’re not fooling around when we tell you that the last weekend of March provided us with some incredible baseball moments! Milestones, new records, exciting rookies, accomplished veterans, and more in this edition of our NPB newsletter round-up!
The Yomiuri Giants established a new franchise record by starting the season with 25 straight shutout innings. In the process, they downed the defending champion Hanshin Tigers 4-0 and 5-0 in the first two games of their series. Those 25 innings without scoring set a Central League mark for longest scoreless drought by an offense. Thankfully for the Tigers, they broke out of it with five runs in the final two innings of the weekend (including home runs by Shota Morishita and Ryuhei Obata) as they defeated the Giants 5-0 on Sunday.
Yokohama DeNA Baystars’ rookie outfielder Ryuki Watarai set the league on fire by doing what no rookie has ever done in league history: hit home runs in the first two games of the season! Both of his blasts were vital in propelling the Baystars past the visiting Hiroshima Carp (4-3, 6-1). They succumbed in the final game of the weekend, though, losing by a 5-1 score.
Veteran Chunichi Dragons’ hurler Hideaki Wakui recorded his 2000th career strikeout on Saturday afternoon, becoming just the 24th pitcher in NPB history to achieve the feat. His effort helped his team tie the game 1-1. They lost the other two games, though, as the Yakult Swallows used their big bats to win the opener 7-4 and solid pitching from first-year import Miguel Yajure on Sunday to win 5-2. The Swallows are NPB’s lone remaining undefeated team.
The Saitama Seibu Lions were close to sweeping their first series. Opening Day starter Tatsuya Imai threw seven shutout innings (fanning 11) on Friday to help his team to a 1-0 win. On Saturday, the bats did more heavy lifting, scoring runs in five different innings as they thumped the Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles 8-2. They even held a 3-0 lead on Sunday, but just for a half-inning. The game went into extra innings tied, and we were treated to our first walk-off win of the year as Eagles’ shortstop Hiroto Kobukata hit a sacrifice fly in the bottom of the 11th to help his team (and rookie manager Toshiaki Imae) to its first win of 2024.
In Osaka, the Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks took two of three against the three-time defending Pacific League champion Orix Buffaloes. They got outstanding pitching from Kohei Arihara on Friday in a 3-1 victory. On Saturday, Buffaloes’ first-year pitcher Anderson Espinoza threw six shutout innings as his team beat the Hawks 2-0. In the rubber match, the Hawks scored four late runs to defeat the Buffaloes 5-2.
Finally, in Chiba, the Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters got their season off to a good start by taking their series against the host Chiba Lotte Marines. First year import Franmil Reyes hit a home run on Opening Day to help his team to a 4-1 win. On Saturday, the Marines evened the series with a 3-0 shutout win thanks to Atsuki Taneichi’s six shutout innings. The Fighters took Sunday’s game in part due to a defensive miscue in the ninth inning by the Marines’ outfielders. It potentially cost Roki Sasaki a shot at the win, but in the end, the Fighters won 3-2.
And if you think that three-game weekend series was a treat, wait until next time when we get to report on SIX games per team! Happy April, everyone!
