楽(Raku)Report

vs. Seibu Lions, Series Tie 1-1

Game 1 - 5/20

Today was the first game in the 2025 Tohoku Series, where the Eagles barnstorm around the Tohoku region visiting stadiums in each of the 5 prefectures outside of their home field in Miyagi Prefecture. Kitagin Ballpark in Morioka, Iwate Prefecture played host today. They had a nice fireworks display after the 5th inning. Unless you were a Seibu Lions fan, that was the only thing worth seeing on the field.

Manager Hajime Miki benched Hideto Asamura for the game, ending his streak of consecutive game appearances at 1,346. Yoshiaki Watanabe went 3-3 and collected as many hits as the rest of the lineup, which coincidentally is also the number of errors that the defense committed.

Eagles Sign Oscar Gonzalez!

Big news today, the Eagles agreed to a two year contract (through the end of next season) with Major Leaguer Oscar Gonzalez who was recently released by the Padres in order to pursue his career in Japan. I remember Oscar Gonzalez's time with the Cleveland Guardians quite well, he hit a walk-off home run in the 2022 wild card game against the Rays in the 15th inning to send Cleveland to the ALDS. He struggled after his first season and hasn't been able to find his way in MLB since, but he should bring some power to a Rakuten lineup that sorely needs it and he always struck me as a great character guys, always up beat. When he was with the Guardians he used the SpongeBob SquarePants theme as his walk up music because he said baseball is a kids game so he wanted to make it fun. Can't wait to see him in the lineup with the Eagles!

Update: Gonzalez will start on the farm team and potentially join the team in the beginning of June. Source: Sports Hochi 

Game 2 - 5/22

Starting pitcher Spencer Howard had another impressive outing (6 IP, 1BB, 5K, 1R) in just his second NPB appearance. I was anxious to see how he would perform against a team other than the Chiba Lotte Marines (team OPS of .560), who he pitched against in his first start, and today's performance eased those worries. We will need to see how his stuff plays against the likes of Orix, SoftBank, and Nippon Ham, but I am impressed so far.

On offense it was the same old story, the Eagles did basically nothing against the Lion's starter Natsuki Takeuchi (7⅔IP, 2BB, 8K, 1R). Yoshiaki Watanabe put the team on his back in the late innings with an RBI double in the 7th to tie the game and a leadoff base hit in the 9th that led to pinch-runner Ogoh scoring the winning run on a Rui Muneyama sacrifice fly. Prior to the 9th, the Eagles had numerous chances to take the lead. In the 7th, Muneyama struck out with Watanabe on 2nd and in the 8th inning Hiroaki Shimauchi struck out with the bases loaded. The 9th inning was a great small-ball display with Watanabe reaching base, Ogoh stealing second, Asamura moving the runner to third on a sacrifice fly to right (very nearly a game winning hit), and Muneyama drove in the walk-off run with another sacrifice fly to center.

A note here, the Eagles have 45 stolen bases this season, most in the Pacific League. For reference, Seibu has the 2nd most stolen bases with 33 and the Hanshin Tigers are 2nd in NPB overall with 35. Rakuten has also only been caught stealing twice, also best in the Pacific League. Tatsuya Shiokawa, the eagles fist base coach, must be an absolute master of his craft because a lot of those stolen bases are not even close and the Rakuten players seem to always get excellent jumps.

vs. Nippon Ham, Series Tie 1-1-1

Game 1 - 5/23

Another day, another low scoring loss. This time at the hands of the Nippon Ham Fighters. Takahisa Hayakawa gave up just 1 run in 7 innings with 9 strikeouts. His opponent, Shoma Kanemura, pitched a complete game shutout with 6 strikeouts. Hideto Asamura collected career hits number 2,999, one of 5 meaningless hits for the Eagles as they failed to score a single run. In fact, not a single run was scored by a Tohoku professional baseball team today as the Fukushima Red Hopes fell 7-0 to the Yomiuri Giants san-gun team. 

Oh, wait, the Eagles ni-gun team scored two runs in their loss to the Lotte Marines ni-gun in the Eastern League. All is not lost! Also Yuya Ogoh apparently played in that game at 1pm where he collected two hits and then played in tonight's NPB game as a pinch hitter in the 9th, long day for the beleaguered outfielder.

Game 2 - 5/24

Kosei Shoji started on the mound for the Eagles today. So far this season he's been showing progress coming down from the 6.98 ERA he posted last season across 29⅔ innings. To my dismay I realized during the pregame show that both of his starts this season have come against the Chiba Lotte Marines, the league's worst offense by a long shot. My fears were very nearly realized in the 1st inning when Shoji faced a bases loaded one-out jam after two defensive miscues. He struck out the next batter and induced a groundout to escape the inning and went on to pitch 6 innings, giving up just one run (81P, 1BB, 5K). He showed a moment of irritation when he was told in the dugout by Rakuten pitching coach Ishii that the 6th inning would be his last, but I see that as a good sign for the young starter.

The big story in this game was Hideto Asamura collecting his 2,000th career hit, an RBI base hit in the bottom of the first that put Rakuten on the board! The past weeks have been hard on the aging superstar and to see him finally reach that milestone felt like both a great achievement and a great relief. Asamura has truly been one of the best right-handed NPB sluggers of his era even though he doesn't get much recognition outside of Japan. When I first arrived in Japan in 2015 Asamura was an intimidating presence in the Seibu Lions lineup and I was thrilled when the Rakuten Eagles signed him a few years later. 

🎉 Congratulations to Hideto Asamura!!!🎉 

Rui Muneyama drove in a second run in the first inning and that turned out to be all the offense the Eagles needed to bring home a win today and give Asamura a spot of the Hero Interview podium after the game. Ren Kajiya and Naoto Nishiguchi (now 13⅓IP, 7H, 7BB, 20K, 0.00ERA, whoa) held the lead through the 8th and Sora Suzuki, now almost certainly the closer, finished off the Fighters in the 9th.

Game 3 - 5/25

Today the Seibu Lions ran away with an 8 run win against the Chiba Lotte Marines and the Orix Buffaloes and SoftBank Hawks battled it out in a 13-5 slugfest. Meanwhile, the Eagles meandered through a 1-1, 12-inning draw to even up their 3 game series against the Nippon Ham Fighters. Starter Miguel Yajure had a great outing and gave up just one run in 7 innings (107P, 6H, 3BB, 4K). The bullpen followed up with 5 relievers throwing 5 consecutive scoreless innings to keep the game tied, although none of them recorded a single strikeout. The only run that Rakuten scored came on a 5th inning sacrifice fly by Kohtaro Komori to level the score at 1-1.

The Eagles will start next week off on the road against Seibu before returning to Sendia for a weekend series against the Hawks.

Notes

(5/24/25) Registered: P #19 Kosei Shoji 荘司 康誠

De-registered: P #26 Haruto Nakagomi 中込 陽翔

(5/20/25) Signed Oscar Gonzalez to 2-year contract.

(5/20/25) Registered: P #52 Taisei Tsurusaki 津留﨑 大成, C #70 Tsuyoshi Ishihara 石原 彪, OF #35 Hiroaki Shimauchi 島内 宏明

(5/19/25) De-registered: C #65 Kengo Horiuchi 堀内 謙伍 (Back Injury), IF #39 Yukiya Itoh 伊藤 裕季也

Box Score Source: NPB English

⅓ ⅔