Seibu Lions

When Hideaki Wakui returns to the active roster will apparently be decided by the parent company, not the front office.

Orix Buffaloes

The pitching staff walked ten batters and hit two during Wednesday's game against the Hanshin Tigers.  The last time the staff allowed double-digit walks/HBPs: thirteen on July 2, 2004.

Rakuten Eagles

Kazuo Matsui (right wrist sprain) worked out at Kleenex Stadium today.  Workouts included running and fielding/throwing practice.

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The Eagles announced that they sell a special a "Kakattekoi Bay Stars!" t-shirt during their two game series against Yokohama.  The shirt will only be available at the Kleenex Stadium team store.

Nippon Ham Fighters

Terrmel Sledge hit a grand slam off Yokohama's Futoshi Kobayashi on Tuesday night.  That made his the thirteenth player in NPB history to record a homer off all twelve current NPB teams (twenty-third to hit homers against all twelve NPB teams, not including the current Rakuten Eagles).  Of those thirteen players, Sledge is the only one that hit a grand slam against the twelfth team.

Seibu Lions

Hideaki Wakui worked out for about four hours at the Seibu 2 Stadium facilities today.

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Yusei Kikuchi's final numbers from his Ni-gun start against Rakuten on Tuesday:

2 IP, 14 BF, 52 NP, 6 H, 1 HR, 1 SO, 1 BB, 6 R, 5 ER.

Orix Buffaloes

Kyocera Dome gives out 1M yen to players that hit grand slams at the stadium.  Takayoshi Kawabata got his on Tuesday night.

More on the grand slam: Kawabata is the second rookie in franchise history to hit a grand slam for his first Ichi-gun home run; he is the twelfth rookie in the NPB (ninth in the PL) to hit a grand slam for his first Ichi-gun home run; he is the first rookie to hit a grand slam during Inter-league play.

Rakuten Eagles

According to Sponichi, Masahiro Tanaka could re-join the active roster as early as Thursday (dependent on how he is feeling today and whether or not the coaches agree it is the best move).  Sanspo and Nikkan Sports add that Tanaka could get an Ichi-gun start as early as May 30 against the Yomiuri Giants.

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The Eagles are giving away free Inter-league home game tickets to people with Tohoku area last names: Miyagi-san, Iwate-san, Fukushima-san, Akita-san, Aomori-san, and Yamagata-san.

According to Nikkan Sports, thirteen people took advantage of the deal on Tuesday (game was eventually called due to rain): Miyagi-san x 6, Akita-san x 4, Fukushima-san x 2, Yamagata-san x 1.

Yomiuri Giants vs Saitama Seibu Lions @ Seibu Dome - 18:00
Announced Starters: Toshiya Sugiuchi (YOM) 5-1, 1.41 - Takayuki Kishi (SEI) 4-3, 1.75

Attendance: 27868 | Yomiuri leads series, 2-0-0 | Time: 2:37

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Seibu Lions

Hideaki Wakui was taken off the active roster today in order to give him some time to think about his actions (woman troubles reported in tabloid).

Orix Buffaloes

Takahiro Okada will be taken off the active roster on Wednesday because his left hamstring has not shown much improvement since returning to the active roster on May 16.

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Takayoshi Kawabata became the first rookie in franchise history to hit a grand slam for his first Ichi-gun homer since Tetsuya Yoneda on April 11, 1956.

Chiba Lotte Marines

Takahiro Fujioka's start against the Yakult Swallows was rained out tonight.  He is now scheduled to start Thursday's make-up game.

Fujioka threw about forty pitches in the bullpen in preparation for his start on Thursday.

Seibu Lions

Yusei Kikuchi made a Ni-gun start against the Rakuten Eagles today and gave up six runs on seven hits over three innings of work.

Orix Buffaloes

The Buffaloes announced today that they promoted Ni-gun bullpen coach Nobuyuki Hoshino to Ichi-gun bench coach.  Ichi-gun bench coach Motoyuki Akahori was shifted to Ichi-gun bullpen coach and Ichi-gun bullpen coach Hiroshi Kobayashi was demoted to Ni-gun bullpen coach.

The changes were apparently just a way to put things back the way they are supposed to be.

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Bobby Scales arrived at Osaka International Airport on Monday.  The Buffaloes held a press conference for Scales at Kyocera Dome today.

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Shinji Takahashi will likely return to the starting line-up today as a DH batting fifth.

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Kei Igawa (right hamstring) may not make it back to the active roster until after Inter-league play.  Igawa did start playing some catch, but because his leg is still bothering him, he's only running at about seventy to eighty percent.  He also has not yet tossed a bullpen session.

Igawa will probably pitch in at least one Ni-gun rehab game before returning to the active roster.

Rakuten Eagles

Masahiro Tanaka made a Ni-gun rehab start against Seibu today and tossed four shutout innings while allowing three hits.  He also struck out six and walked one.  Tanaka threw a total forty-six pitches and topped out at 148km/h.

Yomiuri Giants vs Saitama Seibu Lions @ Seibu Dome - 18:00
Announced Starters: Dennis Houlton (YOM) 2-3, 4.19 - Kazuhisa Makita (SEI) 2-3, 1.22

Attendance: 24523 | Yomiuri leads series, 1-0-0 | Time: 3:15

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Softbank Hawks

Pitching coach Ikuo Takayama sat down with Hiroki Yamada, Nagisa Arakaki, Kenji Otonari, and Sho Iwasaki today and told them that they will be going with a five man starting rotation that includes Tadashi Settsu.  The others will be used to help fill in any gaps.

Nippon Ham Fighters

Keisuke Tanimoto recorded a victory on Saturday on just one pitch and became the thirty-third player in the NPB to accomplish the feat.

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The Fighters will be hosting Player Days on June 16 and 17 (vs Yakult at Sapporo Dome).

Seibu Lions

Voice actress Kaoru Fukuhara will throw out the ceremonial first pitch on June 24 (vs Orix).  She will also be in charge of stadium announcements that day.

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Seibu Recreation announced today that restaurant Shishi at Seibu Dome will be closed until further notice after a customer found a cigarette butt (about four centimeters long) in the curry at the buffet table on Sunday.  There have so far been no reports of customers getting sick.

Orix Buffaloes

Akinobu Okada recorded his ninety-ninth Inter-league managerial victory on Sunday.  That's tops in the NPB history.

Rakuten Eagles

Masahiro Tanaka is still on for his Ni-gun start against Seibu on Tuesday.

Said Tanaka, "I have no worries.  I have not pitched in a month so I do not expect to do well right out of the gate.  I just have to pitch my game. ... Things are improving.  I am no longer in that place where I can not see the end of the tunnel."

Softbank Hawks

Yuichi Honda (neck pain) will most likely make it back to the active roster in time for the Hiroshima series that begins on May 22.

Seibu Lions

Atsushi Okamoto will be demoted to Ni-gun after another rough outing today (0.1 IP, 4 BF, 1 H, 1 HBP, 3 R, 0 ER).  He also committed a throwing error to first that allowed the first of three unearned runs to score (also tied the game at 2-2) and put runners on second and third with just one out.

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The Lions announced their Dream One At Bat Match-ups on Saturday.

May 22 (vs Yomiuri) Kazuhiro Kiyohara vs Katsuhito Mizuno
May 25 (vs Yakult) Hatsuhiko Tsuji vs Kenjiro Kawasaki
June 3 (vs Yokohama) Akio Saito vs Takanori Okamura
June 5 (vs Chunichi) Ken Suzuki vs Shigeki Noguchi
June 14 (vs Hanshin) Hiromichi Ishige vs Koji Noda
June 17 (vs Hiroshima) Koji Yamamoto vs Osamu Higashio

Gossip mag Friday published a story in their May 18 edition about a woman that spilled details on her relationship with Hideaki Wakui.

According to reports, the two exchanged contact information when Wakui met her at a high class Fukuoka hostess club.  In December 2011, the two took a trip to Hokkaido, where the woman slipped and had to be taken to a hospital for treatment.  The woman's boyfriend found out and tried to contact both Wakui and the Seibu Lions on a number of different occasions.

Both the team and Wakui ignored the boyfriend's calls and Friday picked up the story, in addition to the private photos the woman took.

On Saturday, Seibu Lions' managing director Noriaki Iida held a press conference at Nagoya Dome and said, "Fans pay attention to pro yakyu so we are in a position where we set the examples.  We take this recent event very seriously.  We will do our best to ensure something similar does not happen again in the future."

The team also released the following prepared statement from Wakui: "I feel awful for worrying the fans, the team, and my team mates with regards to this latest report.  I am currently talking to the team about the incident."

Note: I have not read the actual Friday article.  The information I got was pieced together from a number of different sources.

Saitama Seibu Lions vs Chunichi Dragons @ Nagoya Dome - 14:00
Announced Starters: Fumiya Nishiguchi (SEI) 1-1, 4.00 - Masahiro Yamamoto (CHU) 2-1, 2.54

Attendance: 32440 | Chunichi leads series, 2-0-0 | Time: 2:59

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