The Seibu Lions took two out of three games in their midweek series against the Orix Buffaloes following Wednesday's 6-0 shutout win at the Belluna Dome in Saitama. Rookie right-hander Minato Aoyama picked up his first win in his fourth NPB appearance with a 106-pitch complete game shutout surrendering just three hits and one walk in a dominating performance. Aoyama took advantage of a rare offensive output by the Seibu offense that scored five earned runs off Buffaloes ace Hiroya Miyagi who was chased with two outs in the 6th inning. Takayoshi Yamamura connected for his second home run of the year for the Lions. Bay Area native Jake Scheiner hit his first home run in NPB, a three-run blast to center field, to give the Hiroshima Carp a 3-0 win over the DeNA BayStars at Yokohama Stadium. Masato Morishita pitched 7 innings to earn his seventh win on the year. Morishita outdueled Yokohama's Katsuki Azuma, who suffered his first loss of the year following eight decision wins over 16 outings in 2024.
都市対抗野球大会 The 95th edition of the Intercity Baseball Tournament began on Friday with defending champions Toyota Motor Corporation eking out sayonara 1-0 victory over Okinawa Electric Power Company. Held annually since 1927, the tournament is commonly referred to as "Summer All-Star" (真夏の球宴) and showcases the highest level of amateur baseball talent with many NPB draft candidates as well as former professionals hoping to catch the eyes of NPB scouts. Jointly organized by The Mainichi Newspapers Co. and the Japan Amateur Baseball Association, the tournament involves 32 teams from the Industrial leagues playing in a knockout format (win = advance, lose = eliminated). Most of the teams are sponsored by corporations and the players themselves are employed by these companies. The tournament is known for its unique "reinforcement player system", in which players can be called up from rival teams that were knocked out in the same regional preliminary rounds. Another feature of the tournament is the fans' unique ways of rooting for their teams. Each team's cheering squad - usually the players' colleagues - can go so far as to recreate scenes from their home city's festivals. Others dance and cheer in their daily work clothes or uniforms. Each day will feature three games with first pitch of each day's opener scheduled for 10:00 JT (9:00pm U.S. Eastern / 6:00pm Pacific) All 31 games are played at the Tokyo Dome with the championship game scheduled for Tuesday 30 July The Mainichi Newspapers website will LIVE STREAM every game. https://mainichi.jp/ama-baseball/kurojishi2024 Schedule https://mainichi.jp/ama-baseball/kurojishi2024/schedule/
Kazuya Ojima tossed a 9 inning complete game performance allowing just two hits and no walks over a 116 pitches. Unfortunately, both hits he conceded were solo home runs and they were enough to give the Nippon-Ham Fighters a tough 2-1 victory over Ojima's Lotte Marines. The Fighters were hitless against the Lotte southpaw starter for 7 innings until Kazunari Ishii led off the 8th by sending a 3-1 fastball into the right field bleachers of ZOZO Marine Stadium. The home run not only ended Ojima's hopes of a no hitter and shutout but it also put him in jeopardy of a loss as the Marines offense were struggling themselves against Fighters starter Takayuki Kato, who ended up throwing 7-1/3 innings of shutout ball. Yūya Gunji added insult with another solo homer in the 9th, and although the Marines made a valiant attempt at a comeback by cutting the deficit in half in the last of the 9th, the rally ended when Gregory Polanco grounded to short stranding the potential tying and winning runs in scoring positions. Takahisa Hayakawa earned his sixth consecutive win with a strong 8 inning performance to guide the Rakuten Eagles to a 3-0 shutout win over the Orix Buffaloes in Kobe. Hayakawa threw an even 100 pitches recording seven strikeouts along the way to his seventh victory against three defeats for the year. Toshiki Abe produced a memorable bat flip after launching his forth home run of the season, a three-run blast in the 4th inning that produced the necessary runs for the win. Infielder Hideto Asamura moved into fifth place all-time by playing in his 1,247th consecutive game in NPB. Three games away in fourth place sits Hideki Matsui and his 1,250 consecutive game streak which ended on 11 October 2002, his final regular season game in NPB before he moved across the Pacific for MLB notoriety. Hiroto Takahashi struck out 12 batters over 8 dominate innings allowing just four hits with no walks as the Chunichi Dragons blanked the Yomiuri Giants 1-0 at Nagoya's Vantelin Dome. The goose egg was the 17th shutout thrown by Dragon pitchers this season, tops in the whole of NPB. For Takahashi, it was his second straight outing with double-digit Ks as he lowered his ERA 0.52. He is expected to qualify for the official leadership in his next start. Although he was overshadowed by his counterpart, Giants ace Shosei Togo also put in a quality effort with six strikeouts in 7 innings but one of the six hits he allowed turned out to be the game-winner. Seiya Hosokawa's 2nd inning home run, his 12th bomb of the campaign, held up as the deciding factor.
Saturday 20 July Boxscores: https://baseball.yahoo.co.jp/npb/schedule/?date=2024-07-20 Tigers-Carp went 11 innings Buffaloes-Eagles went 12 innings
Jose Osuna hit two home runs including a two-run bomb in the 8th inning that broke a 4-4 tie and gave the Yakult Swallows a 6-4 win over the Yokohama DeNA BayStars. Munetaka Murakami also homered for the Swallows, a solo shot in the 4th inning that puts the slugging third baseman back on top of the home run leaders chart with 17. Kouki Kajiwara and Tyler Austin each went 3-for-4 with two runs scored but as a team the BayStars left a total of 10 runners on base throughout the game. Two runs in the 8th inning also proved to be the difference in Saitama where a bases-loaded double by Shuta Tonosaki drove home the winning runs to give the Seibu Lions a 5-3 win over the SoftBank Hawks. Tonosaki's game winning RBI came off Hawks reliever Darwinzon Hernández who struggled in his one inning of work, hitting two of the seven batters he faced. But Hernández also recorded two strikeouts which extended his record streak to 27 consecutive innings with at least one strikeout since his NPB debut appearance. Seibu's Daiju Nomura led all players at the plate going 2-for-3 with two RBIs and two runs scored. Lions starter Tatsuya Imai didn't figure into the decision but struck out 8 batters to take his NPB leading total to 121 for the season.
Sunday 21 July Boxscores: https://baseball.yahoo.co.jp/npb/schedule/?date=2024-07-21 Swallows-BayStars went 11 innings
Jose Osuna's single to left field ended a wild Sunday night in Tokyo that saw the Yakult Swallows score three runs in the bottom of the 11th inning to capture an 8-7 sayonara victory over the Yokohama DeNA BayStars. The Swallows led 5-3 in the 9th inning when Tyler Austin sent the contest into extra frames with a two-run home run, his 15th blast of the year. The BayStars then took the lead in the top of the 11th on Keita Sano's two-out two-run home run. But Yakult immediately hit back with three consecutive hits in the bottom of the frame with Hideki Nagaoka's single to right scoring Kazuya Maruyama and Haruki Nishikawa to level the score at 7-7. Four batters later Osuna drove in Nagoaka to complete the incredible comeback at a raucous Meiji Jingu Stadium, the venue that will host the second game of All-Star Series on Wednesday. It was all about pitching at the Belluna Dome where the SoftBank Hawks defeated the Seibu Lions 1-0. Livan Moinelo pitched 8 masterful innings for the Hawks allowing just five hits with no walks and nine strikeouts. Seibu's Chihiro Sumida was just as impressive surrendering seven hits and no walks while registering seven strikeouts in a complete game performance. The one earned run he allowed came in the 9th inning when Ukyo Shuto led off with a single to center, advanced to second on a sacrifice bunt and scored on Ryoya Kurihara's single to center.
No games scheduled for Monday 22 July. Two-game All-Star Series to be played on Tuesday and Wednesday.
All-Star Series roster move. PACIFIC LEAGUE ▼ Ryo Ohta (Buffaloes) withdrawn due to injury. ◆ Daichi Suzuki (Eagles) named as replacement. Home Run Derby participant move. ▼ Gregory Polanco (Marines) withdraws ◆ Ariel Martínez (Fighters) named as replacement.
HOME RUN DERBY MATCHUPS Kazuma Okamoto (Giants) -vs- Chusei Mannami (Fighters) Shugo Maki (BayStars) -vs- Kensuke Kondoh (Hawks) Munetaka Murakami (Swallows) -vs- Ariel Martínez (Fighters) Seiya Hosokawa (Dragons) -vs- Hotaka Yamakawa (Hawks) All-Star Game 1 - Es Con Field Hokkaido Probables PACIFIC LEAGUE : Sachiya Yamasaki (Fighters) CENTRAL LEAGUE : Hiroto Saiki (Tigers)
Half of the field participated in the Home Run Derby competition on Tuesday. 1st Round Kazuma Okamoto defeated Chusei Mannami 5-3 Kensuke Kondoh defeated Shugo Maki 4-3 2nd Round Kazuma Okamoto and Kensuke Kondoh tied 6-6 Kensuke Kondoh defeated Kazuma Okamoto 5-4 in a tiebreaker round Kensuke Kondoh advances to the final round. The other half of the field along with the final round will be contested on Wednesday at Meiji Jingu Stadium.
The Central League scored 11 runs off 17 hits which included five doubles and four home runs en route to an 11-6 destruction of the Pacific League in the first game of the 2024 All-Star Series at Es Con Field Hokkaido in Kitahiroshima on Tuesday. Nine of those runs came in the 2nd inning that saw the CL produce 10 hits, both numbers tying NPB All-Star Game records for most in a single inning. Ironically, the high output happened in one of the lowest scoring seasons in NPB history. Munetaka Murakami, Tyler Austin and Kazuma Okamoto each had 2 hits in the inning with Murakami's home run adding to the back-to-back homers hit earlier in the frame by Yoshihiro Maru and Shugo Maki. Maki earned MVP honors by hitting his second home run of the game in the 4th inning which put the CL up 11-1. Murakami, who added two doubles to finish going 3-for-4, became just the second player in All Star history to hit two extra base hits in the same inning. (Tokuji Nagaike in Game 1 of 1970) In the bottom of the 2nd Hiromi Oka homered for the PL as did Hotaka Yamakawa in the 8th with a 3-run blast into the second level bleachers to make the final score a bit more respectable. Two pitchers batted in the contest and both singled: PL starting pitcher Sachiya Yamasaki who batted second in the lineup, and Hiroki Tokoda who hit a pinch-hit single in the 9th. ABEMA TV claimed 3 million viewers watched their live domestic broadcast of the game.
All-Star Game 2 - Meiji Jingu Stadium Probables CENTRAL LEAGUE : Kojiro Yoshimura (Yakult Swallows PACIFIC LEAGUE : Kohei Arihara (Hawks)
One tradition that remains a part of the NPB All-Star Series is the players wearing their own team's uniforms, something I've seen many baseball fans complain about with the MLB All-Star Game wear the players wear generic American and National League threads.
As hosts of Game 1 of the All-Star Series, the Fighters had their 9 players wear uniforms that spanned their years since being bought by the food processing conglomerate Nippon-Ham in November 1973. These were the uniforms worn by the players: 1974, Ryusei Kawano 1974-1981, Daigo Kamikawabata 1982-1992, Ariel Martínez 1993-2003, Yūya Gunji 2004-2010, Seigi Tanaka 2022-present, Yua Tamiya 2023 Es Con Field debut season, Chusei Mannami 2023 New Age Games, Sachiya Yamasaki 2024 50th Anniversary, Shun Mizutani
The Home Run Derby competition concluded on Wednesday. 1st Round Ariel Martinez defeated Munetaka Murakami 7-6 Hotaka Yamakawa defeated Seiya Hosokawa 5-4 2nd Round Hotaka Yamakawa defeated Ariel Martinez 5-4 Final Round Hotaka Yamakawa and Kensuke Kondoh tied 8-8 Kensuke Kondoh defeated Hotaka Yamakawa 5-4 in a tiebreaker round Kensuke Kondoh wins Home Run Derby
The Pacific League set All-Star single game records in both hits and runs scored to earn a 16-10 victory over the Central League at Meiji Jingu Stadium in Tokyo to split the two game series at 1-1. Over the two games, the Pacific League outscored the Central League by a combined score of 22-21. The 16 runs scored by the PL broke the previous record of 14 set by the Pacific League in 1984, Game 1. The PL's 28 base hits is also a new All-Star game record besting the 24 hits produced by the CL in 2011, Game 1. Both teams set a combined record for a single All-Star game with 44 hits and 26 runs scored. Over the two games a total of 43 runs were scored, equaling the record for most runs scored in an All-Star Series record. The only other All-Star Series to feature as many runs was in 1963 where the 43 runs were scored over a three-game series. Six batters hit hoe runs on Wednesday night including Shogo Sakakura, who hit just the third grand slam in All-Star history, the first since Katsuo Osugi in 1967. Munetaka Murakami and Hiromi Oka each homered just as they had in Game 1 on Tuesday. Ryosuke Tatsumi, Tyler Austin, and Kotaro Kurebayashi also went yard in Tokyo. Home Run Derby champion Kensuke Kondoh went 5-for-6 on the night as did Toshiya Satoh, who earned MVP honors by belting three doubles, one triple, was walked once and had two RBIs and two runs scored. Tatsuya Imai ended the game with a strikeout celebration impression of his Seibu Lions Dominican teammate Jefry Yan.
Baseball will not be a part of the 2024 Paris Olympics but will return for Los Angeles 2028. After the All-Star Series was played in 2021, NPB paused the season for four weeks while the Olympic baseball tournament was played at the Tokyo 2020 Games. The tournament took place at Yokohama Stadium and Japan went on to capture the gold medal. 2020 OLYMPIC ROSTER PITCHERS Kōyō Aoyagi (Hanshin Tigers) Suguru Iwazaki (Hanshin Tigers) Masato Morishita (Hiroshima Carp) Hiromi Itoh (Nippon-Ham Fighters) Yoshinobu Yamamoto (Orix Buffaloes) Masahiro Tanaka (Rakuten Golden Eagles) Yasuaki Yamasaki (Yokohama DeNA BayStars) Ryoji Kuribayashi (Hiroshima Carp) Yūdai Ōno (Chunichi Dragons) Kodai Senga (SoftBank Hawks) Kaima Taira (Seibu Lions) CATCHERS Ryutaro Umeno (Hanshin Tigers) Takuya Kai (SoftBank Hawks) INFIELDERS Tetsuto Yamada (Yakult Swallows) Sōsuke Genda (Seibu Lions) Hideto Asamura (Rakuten Golden Eagles) Ryosuke Kikuchi (Hiroshima Carp) Hayato Sakamoto (Yomiuri Giants) Munetaka Murakami (Yakult Swallows) OUTFIELD Kensuke Kondo (Nippon-Ham Fighters) Yuki Yanagita (SoftBank Hawks) Ryoya Kurihara (SoftBank Hawks) Masataka Yoshida (Orix Buffaloes) Seiya Suzuki (Hiroshima Carp) MANAGER Atsunori Inaba COACHES Makoto Kaneko Yoshinori Tateyama Yoshinori Murata Hirokazu Ibata Masaji Shimizu
One friendship that developed during the Tokyo Olympics was between 27 year old Seiya Suzuki, who was then in his 8th season with the Hiroshima Carp, and 21 year old Munetaka Murakami, who had already established himself as a powerful home run slugger with the Yakult Swallows. Both players were selected to be on Samurai Japan's roster for the 2023 World Baseball Classic but Suzuki, who was entering his second season with the MLB Chicago Cubs, made the "very unfortunate decision" to withdraw from the team three weeks before the tournament due to a left oblique injury. Murakami, entered the WBC tournament with high expectations. He had just achieved the Central League Triple Crown with a .318 batting average and 134 RBIs while his 56 home runs broke Sadaharu Oh's record for most home runs in a single season by a Japanese player. But Murakami began the tournament in a horrible slump, batting just .143 (2-for-14) after four games in Pool play. Both hits were singles and he struck out 7 times while drawing 5 walks and had an sacrifice RBI. 顔を上げて頑張れ Before the quarterfinals, Suzuki sent Murakami a humorous video for encouragement. In the video, Seiya jokingly mocked Murakami's batting style as the sound of the Swallows' ouenka (cheer song) played in the background. After a swing and miss, Seiya sat down, did Lars Nootbaar's pepper grind celebration, stood back up and told Murakami, "Keep your head up and do your best!" https://www.instagram.com/p/CpsdKRSDBcb/ Murakami responded by going 2-for-3 with a walk against Italy, driving in one run while crossing home plate three times. In Miami, Murakami would only go a combined 2-for-9 while striking out 5 times, but those two hits proved crucial. His 9th inning double scored the tying and winning runs in the semifinal against Mexico, and his home run blast into the second deck of LoanDepot Park helped lead Japan to victory over the United States in the Championship Final. During the post-tournament ceremonies, Munetaka Murakami held Seiya Suzuki's Samurai Japan jersey as he received his WBC champions medal. FWIW... Another WBC Samurai Japan teammate, Shota Imanaga, joined Suzuki last winter when he signed with the Chicago Cubs. Murakami is expected to be posted by the Swallows following the 2025 season.