Rakuten Eagles vs Yokohama Bay Stars @ Yokohama Stadium - 18:00
Starters: Tanaka, Masahiro (RAK) 5-0, 1.84 - Miura, Daisuke (YOK) 2-2, 3.86

Attendance: 17050 | Time: 3h18m | Rakuten leads series, 1-0-0

(continue reading...)

Nippon Ham Fighters

1st round draft pick Shohei Otani threw 101 pitches in the bullpen on Saturday.

Source: Nikkan Sports 5/11/2013

Otani is scheduled to pitch in a Ni-gun game against Seibu at Kamagaya on the 16th.  He is expected to throw around ninety pitches.

Source: Sports Hochi 5/12/2013

Seibu Lions

Yuta Nakazaki became the sixty-second pitcher in NPB history (thirty-sixth in the PL, fourth in franchise history) to give up a home run to the first batter he faced -- against Softbank on Saturday, 6th inning with a runner on third and one out, Yuya Hasegawa up to bat.

Source: Sponichi 5/12/2013

Rakuten Eagles

Andruw Jones will likely see time at first during Inter-league play (during road games where there is no DH).

Source: Sports Hochi 5/12/2013, Sponichi 5/12/2013

===

Brandon Duckworth's start was rained out on Saturday.  His next start will likely be pushed back until after the start of Inter-league play.

Source: Nikkan Sports 5/11/2013

Chiba Lotte Marines

1st round draft pick Takahiro Matsunaga was not available to play today because of a fever caused by swollen tonsils.

Source: Sponichi 5/12/2013

Orix Buffaloes

When Yoshio Itoi went yard against the Nippon Ham Fighters on Saturday, he became the twenty-sixth player in NPB history to record at least one home run against all twelve NPB teams: Orix (13), Lotte (12), Softbank (12), Rakuten (6), Seibu (5), Nippon Ham (1), Yakult (2), Hanshin (2), Chunichi (2), Yomiuri (1), Hiroshima (1), Chunichi (1).

Source: Sanspo 5/12/2013, Sports Hochi 5/12/2013, Sponichi 5/12/2013

Rakuten Eagles vs Chiba Lotte Marines @ QVC Marine Field - 13:00
Starters: Nagai, Satoshi (RAK) 0-0, 3.38 - Naruse, Yoshihisa (LOT) 4-0, 0.99

Attendance: 20849 | Time: 4h29m | Lotte leads series, 5-3-0

(continue reading...)

Rakuten Eagles vs Chiba Lotte Marines @ QVC Marine Field - 14:00
Starters: Duckworth, Brandon (RAK) 2-3, 4.04 - Naruse, Yoshihisa (LOT) 4-0, 0.99

Canceled at 10:30am because of bad weather.

Rakuten Eagles vs Chiba Lotte Marines @ QVC Marine Field - 18:15
Starters: Norimoto, Takahiro (RAK) 3-2, 2.68 - Karakawa, Yuki (LOT) 2-2, 4.13

Attendance: 11282 | Time: 3h45m | Lotte leads series, 4-3-0

(continue reading...)

Nippon Ham Fighters

1st round draft pick Shohei Otani is scheduled to toss a bullpen session before Saturday's game against Orix.

Source: Sanspo 5/8/2013

Softbank Hawks

Wily Mo Pena was taken off the active roster today because of his struggles at the plate: 30 G, 20-for-95, 9 BB, 29 SO, .211/.303/.263.

Source: Nikkan Sports 5/9/2013

===

Hayato Terahara may have had a difficult time adjusting to the harder mound at Kyocera Dome during his start on Wednesday.

Source: Nikkan Sports 5/9/2013

Rakuten Eagles

Masahiro Tanaka recorded the eightieth victory of his career on Wednesday.  He is the tenth pitcher out of high school since the start of the draft to record eighty victories within the first seven years of their career (first since Yu Darvish in 2011).  At the end of seven seasons, Darvish had ninety-three victories and Daisuke Matsuzaka ninety-one victories.

Source: Nikkan Sports 5/9/2013

Tanaka recorded his eightieth victory in his 154th game.  Since the start of the draft, only Koji Uehara (138 games) and Darvish (145 games) managed to record eighty victories in fewer games.

Source: Sponichi 5/9/2013

Tanaka's next start will likely come on the 14th against Yokohama at Yokohama.

Source: Sponichi 5/9/2013

Chiba Lotte Marines

Seth Greisinger (right shoulder) started a Ni-gun game against Yakult at QVC Marine on Wednesday and tossed six shutout innings.  He also allowed two hits, walked two, and struck out five.  Greisinger is reportedly at 100% and ready to rejoin the Ichi-gun team whenever needed.

Source: Sanspo 5/8/2013

===

Pitching coach Akio Saito left the stadium before Wednesday night's game because of a fever.  Bullpen coach Kenjiro Kawasaki took over for Saito.

Source: Sponichi 5/8/2013

Rakuten Eagles vs Nippon Ham Fighters @ Sapporo Dome - 18:00
Starters: Mima, Manabu (RAK) 3-2, 4.86 - Yoshikawa, Mitsuo (HAM) 3-2, 2.81

Attendance: 19333 | Time: 3h5m | Series tied, 4-4-0

(continue reading...)

Rakuten Eagles vs Nippon Ham Fighters @ Sapporo Dome - 18:00
Starters: Tanaka, Masahiro (RAK) 4-0, 1.70 - Kisanuki, Hiroshi (HAM) 3-1, 3.06

Attendance: 24129 | Time: 2h56m | Nippon Ham leads series, 4-3-0

(continue reading...)

Nippon Ham Fighters

1st round draft pick Shohei Otani started a Ni-gun game against Yomiuri today and gave up a run (unearned) over an inning of work.  He did not allow any hits, walked one, and topped out at 151km/h.

He was originally supposed to pitch two innings, but the outing was cut short because he had a problem with his right middle fingernail.

Source: Nikkan Sports 5/7/2013

===

Yohei Kagiya was taken off the active roster today because he is no longer needed at Ichi-gun.

Source: Sanspo 5/7/2013

===

Brian Wolfe is scheduled to undergo a full examination within the next couple of days to see what is causing his headaches and dizzy spells.  He did undergo some tests on Sunday that came back negative.

Source: Nikkan Sports 5/7/2013

Softbank Hawks

Kazuyuki Hoashi threw about thirty pitches in the bullpen at YafuOku Dome today.  There is a good chance he will start Thursday's game against Orix at Hotto Motto Kobe.

Source: Nikkan Sports 5/7/2013

Rakuten Eagles

Takashi Saito joined Masanori Murakami (1966, relief), Hideki Irabu (2003, start), Shingo Takatsu (2006, relief), Tomokazu Oka (2010, start), and Kenshin Kawakami (2012, start) as the only pitchers in NPB history to record a victory in their first Ichi-gun appearance after returning to Japan from the Majors.

At forty-three years and two months, he joined Shinji Hamazaki, Kimiyasu Kudo, Masahiro Yamamoto, and Satoru Komiyama as pitchers that recorded victories at forty-three or older and set a new franchise record (the previous record of thirty-nine years and eight months was held by Toyohiko Yoshida in 2006).

Source: Sponichi 5/7/2013

===

Kazuo Matsui blasted the second grand slam of his career on Monday and set a new record for numbers of years in between grand slams: thirteen years (July 8, 2000 and May 6, 2013).  The previous record of twelve years was held by Masato Monzen, Tatsuhiko Kimata, and Takumi Ejima.

Source: Sponichi 5/7/2013

===

Senichi Hoshino recorded his 1,067th managerial victory on Monday and moved into sole possession of tenth place on the all-time list.

Hoshino is now 1,067-943-50.

Source: Sponichi 5/7/2013, Daily Sports 5/7/2013

Chiba Lotte Marines

The Marines and Seibu Lions announced the start of the Saitama vs Chiba Rival Series.

July 5-6 Chiba vs Seibu at Seibu Dome
September 6-8 Seibu vs Chiba at QVC Marine

The Seibu Lions will wear their Saitama alternate uniforms while the Chiba Lotte Marines will wear their Chiba alternate uniforms.

Source: official announcement (Lotte), official announcement (Seibu)

Orix Buffaloes

Yoshio Itoi is scheduled to get his right knee examined today.

Source: Sponichi 5/7/2013

Orix Buffaloes vs Rakuten Eagles @ Kleenex Stadium - 13:00
Starters: Dickson, Brandon (ORI) 3-1, 2.18 - Nagai, Satoshi (RAK)

Attendance: 15963 | Time: 3h31m | Rakuten leads series, 6-1-0

(continue reading...)