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Short Work Week, Big Announcement?

by Trevor Raichura

The first half of the week featured exactly one game, but the weekend more than made up for it with some excellent action as teams within the leagues resumed duking it out against each other. Here are the highlights of the week that was…

Tuesday: In the last interleague game of 2024, the Hanshin Tigers hosted the Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters at Koshien Stadium to make up the rain-out on May 28. The game entered the bottom of the ninth inning tied at one. The Tigers got a one-out single, and the Fighters took care of the rest. What could have been an inning-ending 6-4-3 was an E6, and the pitcher threw one to the next batter that was well off the mark. Wild pitch and a walk-off win for the home team. Interleague ended with the Pacific going 53-52-3 over the Central.

Friday: Six starting pitchers threw gems in three games. Only two got wins. Hiroto Takahashi (Chunichi Dragons, 7 IP 0 R) beat Hiroki Tokoda (Hiroshima Carp, 7 IP 1 R) in a 1-0 win. Yuki Nishi (Tigers, 7 IP 0 R) and Andre Jackson (Yokohama DeNA Baystars, 6.2 IP 0 R) both got a no-decision in a 1-0 Tigers walk-off victory. Anderson Espinoza (Orix Buffaloes, 8 IP 0 R) helped his team hand Tatsuya Imai (Saitama Seibu Lions, 8 IP 2 R) a tough 2-0 loss… All of those teams let the Rakuten Eagles and the Fighters score all the runs on this day. The teams exchanged blows for three innings (3-2 Eagles), took a break from scoring for the next three, and then got right back at it in the seventh. Franmil Reyes hit a grand slam for the Fighters in the bottom of the inning, and Maikel Franco hit one for the Eagles in the top of the eighth. Toshiki Abe also added a solo shot. The teams each scored a run in the ninth, sending the game into extras, where, once again for three innings, no one scored any runs. The game ended in a 9-9 draw.

Saturday: Carp starter Daichi Ohsera, 33, stretched his shutout innings streak to 29 as he threw seven scoreless innings against the Chunichi Dragons in a 3-1 victory. If he throws 5 1/3 or more shutout innings in his next start, he will establish a new club record. Speaking of shutouts, the Yomiuri Giants suffered their seventh shutout loss of the year at Tokyo Dome, bowing out in the late innings against the Swallows and losing 3-0. One more game of zeroes at home and they will set a new franchise mark of shame.

Sunday: Not since the days of Ichiro Suzuki (1996) has the Orix franchise reached 1,000,000 spectators this quickly. They did it in 34 games (good for an average attendance of just under 30,000 per game), while the Nippon Champion BlueWave needed 37 games to do it 28 seasons ago. The team celebrated with a 4-1 win over the Saitama Seibu Lions, who dropped their sixth straight series and are already 26 games below .500 on the year. Buffaloes rookie pitcher Seiryu Kotajima tied an NPB record with 22 straight shutout mounds to start his career. He has a chance of owning the record outright the next time he takes the mound, at which point Ryoji Kuribayashi (2021 Carp) and Satoshi Miyamori (2022 Eagles) will be wiped from the books.

As this was a shorter week and less news than usual, allow me to take this opportunity to thank you all for your readership and interaction over the past 7.5 years that I (Trevor) have been writing the newsletters for JapanBall. After careful deliberation, I have decided to take a break, but fear not! We have a very capable replacement in the wings, ready to take the newsletter and fly with it at the all-star break! I have truly enjoyed the privilege of updating all of you on the world of Japanese baseball since the start of the 2017 season… but it’s time to move on to other things. I will write three more, and then step aside. If you come on a JapanBall tour, there is still a good chance you will see me… I’m still staying in the family! Again, thank you all for your support and readership. I’ll probably be a bit longer-winded (and teary-eyed) on July 15…

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