楽(Raku)Report

@ Nippon-Ham, Series Win 2-0

Game 1 - 4/22

Rakuten kicked off this road series against the Fighters with some late game heroics and more solid pitching to secure a 4-2 victory today! This game had the potential to be a pitchers duel with Hiromi Itoh on the mound for Nippon-Ham and Masaru Fujii for the Eagles and both pitchers delivered with 7 and 6 1/3 inning efforts respectively. The Fighters scored first on a solo home run by Gunji in the 2nd and held on to their lead until the top of the 5th when Hideto Asamura hit a sacrifice fly that came within a few feet of being career home run number 300 for the Eagles' slugger. The Fighters retook the lead in the bottom of the 7th when Chusei Mannami hit a solo home run off of Fujii (3/5 with 2 HR against Fujii this season), who spoke with reporters before the game about not wanting to make another mistake against Mannami.

The Eagles worked themselves into trouble in the 8th when Fujii gave up a pair of base hits and, with one out, he was replaced with Ryuta Konno. Konno walked the first batter he faced and then battled back from a 3-0 count to strike out Mannami and Franmil Reyes. Konno must really hide the ball well with his delivery because he blew Reyes away on three straight fastballs. Down 2-1 going into the 8th, the Fighters brought out reliever Toshihiro Sugiura to face Asamura who smashed an opposite field shot into the home bullpen for the game-tying home run, career number 300!!! Not to be outdone, Maikel Franco followed up with a titanic blast out of the yard that was reminiscent of the late game home runs he was famous for throughout his career in MLB. Things unraveled further for the Fighters from there with the Eagles scoring a second insurance run on a erroneous throw to first by pitcher Tsubasa Namatame. Rakuten brought out Nishiguchi for the hold in the 8th and Fujihira came in for the save in the 9th. Game 1 to the Eagles!

Game 2 - 4/23

The Eagles convincingly wrapped up their 2 game road series against the Fighters with an 8-3 victory today. Ryota Takinaka was the star in this one, giving up just 2 runs in an 8 inning, 98 pitch effort. He was supported by a lively Rakuten offense that started things off with a chaotic 3-run first inning against 2024 CPBL MVP Ruei-Yang Gu Lin, making his NPB debut today. Kotaro Kiyomiya fumbled a would-be double play ball (he also made a critical baserunning mistake a few innings later, rough day) that resulted in a run scoring, Yoshiaki Watanabe scored another run on a ground out to second, and Itsuki Murabayashi brought in the third run on a bloop single to center. Gu Lin settled in after that and held the Eagles scoreless until the 6th when pinch-hitter Daichi Suzuki singled in a run and then Hideto Asamura smashed a 3-run opposite-field home run to take a 7-0 lead. The BIGBOSS Tsuyoshi Shinjo seemed like he left Gu Lin in a couple batters too long and let this game get out of hand for the Fighters, although I suppose he wanted to test how the starter would react in a tough, late game situation.

The Eagles added an 8th run on a Daichi Suzuki infield single in the 8th inning and Sora Suzuki finished off the game in the 9th after Masahiro Ehara struggled to record two outs after facing 5 batters and surrendering a run to start the inning. Rakuten will return home and prepare for a three game series against the SoftBank Hawks starting on Friday. With the off day on Thursday, my anticipated starters for the weekend will be Kishi --> Hayakawa --> Koja. I also think that Spencer Howard will most likely return next week in the Wednesday slot or maybe he'll be the Saturday starter. Given how well Takinaka pitched today I think he has earned a spot in the rotation, which seems to finally be taking shape.

vs SoftBank Hawks, Series Win 3-0

Game 1 - 4/25

Not a whole lot to talk about from this game. Hideto Asamura crept closer to 2000 career hits with his 1988th tonight. The band from Miyagi Gakuin High School was on hand, playing high school baseball songs through the first few inning, part of this weekend's "Eagles High School" events. Takahisa Hayakawa pitched incredibly well (11K) and got the Eagles through 7 scoreless innings, followed up by a scoreless 8th by Nishiguchi. Both teams threatened to score in the 7th, but neither broke through until the top of the 9th when Rakuten's closer Takahiro Norimoto came into the game. 

Norimoto gave up a base hit on a full count to start the inning and then walked the second batter who was trying to sacrifice bunt. A successful sacrifice bunt then moved the runners to 2nd and 3rd for SoftBank and pinch-hitting catcher Hiroki Minei, who was always a decent hitting catcher when he was with the Baystars, hit a sacrifice fly to left that scored the go-ahead run for the Hawks. Norimoto really struggled to get his pitches into the strike zone. There's nothing more frustrating to watch from a reliever, especially someone who should be shutting things down in the 9th against the bottom of the Hawks batting order. Asamura walked to start the bottom of the 9th for the Eagles, but a pop-out double play on a sacrifice bunt attempt by Daichi Suzuki effectively ended any chance for a comeback and Nakashima grounded out to end the game, a 1-0 victory for SoftBank.

Game 2 - 4/26

After coming up empty last night the Eagles' bats came to life in today's game against the SoftBank Hawks! This was the second game of "Eagles High School" weekend and it featured an air raid siren to start the game and the stadium announcer reading the player names in a high school style. In addition, cheerleaders from Shohei Ohtani's alma mater Hanamaki Higashi High School and the band from Tohoku High School were on hand to create a vibrant stadium atmosphere. Toshiki Abe got things going early with a solo home run in the 2nd inning, his second of the year. Then in the 4th inning, Kengo Horiuchi scored another run on a ground out to short and in the following inning Itsuki Murabayashi drove in 3 more runs on a bases-loaded double into the gap in left-center field!

Starter Seiryu Uchi completely blanked the SoftBank offense through 6 and 1/3 innings and turned things over to the bullpen in the 7th. Masaya Nishigaki and Sora Suzuki kept the Hawks off the scoreboard in the 7th and 8th respectively and Kazuki Tanaka extended the Eagles' lead to 6-0 with an RBI base hit in the bottom of the 8th. Ren Kajiya came in the work the top of the 9th and after retiring the first two batters he gave up a walk and 4 consecutive hits, including another pinch-hit RBI single by Hiroki Minei. With the Hawks now trailing by just 3 runs, Shoma Fujihira was summoned from the bullpen to record the save after Ryoya Kurihara flied out to deep left-center field. The Eagles have now evened out the series at one game each and will send Takayuki Kishi to the mound for the series' deciding game on Sunday.

Game 3 - 4/27

The Eagles won today's series-deciding game in walk-off fashion on a Yoshiaki Watanabe base-hit in the bottom of the 11th inning! Takayuki Kishi started on the mound for Rakuten and pitched through 6 innings with 7 strikeouts. The Eagles scored first on a Kotaro Komori aka "Red Hulk" solo home run (first of his career!) to left in the 3rd inning that kick started a rally capped off with an RBI single from Maikel Franco to make it 2-0 Rakuten. Kishi gave up his first run of the game in the 6th and the bullpen held the 2-1 lead going into the 9th. Shoma Fujihira came in to finish off the game, potentially to audition for the closer role given Norimoto's recent struggles, but he immediately gave up a game-tying solo home run. The game remained tied at 2 until the bottom of the 11th when Nakashima got on base, Muneyama doubled, Itoh was intentionally walked, and then with the bases loaded and nobody out, pinch-hitter Watanabe hit a long fly ball to left that short hopped the wall and brought in the winning run! Another series win for the Eagles and a great end to the week. Rakuten, now second in the Pacific League standings, will start next week on the road at Seibu for three games before returning home again for a series against the league-leading Orix Buffaloes.

Notes

(4/22) SP Spencer Howard, who has missed the first few weeks of the season with lower back stiffness, pitched 3 innings with 4 strikeouts on the farm in a rehab start. Source: Pacificleague.com 

(4/22) Called up: OF #25 Kazuki Tanaka 田中 和基

(4/21) Sent to the farm: OF #8 Ryosuke Tatsumi 辰己 涼介 (.193/.228/.277)

Box Score Source: NPB English