The playoffs loom as the 2024 Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB) regular season is slowly coming to a close, but a lot can still happen in the final month of the season.
Here is a recap of Tuesday’s slate of games.
Fighters Inch Closer to First
Tatsuki Mizuno hit a solo walk-off home run in the bottom of the ninth inning to give the Nippon-Ham Fighters a 1-0 win over the Saitama Seibu Lions.
The starting pitcher of the Fighters, Hiromi Itoh, pitched a complete game shutout, only allowing four hits and striking out 10 Seibu batters. Itoh didn’t walk any of the Lions.
While Lions starting pitcher Kona Takahashi didn’t get attributed the loss, it wasn’t a win despite a solid outing. Takahashi didn’t allow a run in his five innings pitched, but Seibu’s bats were the reason it couldn’t emerge victorious.
Takahashi is 0-11 in 14 games this season, and he’ll have to wait a little longer before he gets another opportunity to change that.
The loss didn’t change anything for the Lions season, as their 40-83 record is the worst in the NPB. For the Fighters, though, Mizuno’s home run inches them closer to first place in the Pacific League.
Hiroshima Continues to Falter
Hiroshima Toyo Carp were handily defeated by the Yomiuri Giants 6-1 on Tuesday, marking the Carp’s sixth loss in seven games.
The skid started on Sep. 3 with a 5-1 loss to the Yokohama DeNA BayStars, which promptly turned into Hiroshima getting swept. The Carp dropped two games to the Chunichi Dragons, the second-worst team in the Central League, before Tuesday’s loss.
Hiroshima was first in the Central League before the losing streak, propelling Yomiuri into first place and making the loss to the Giants that much worse.
Even with the losing streak, the Carp are only two games back with two games left in their series with the Giants. If Hiroshima can win both games, they’ll be back on top of the conference.
SoftBank Bounces Back
The Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks defeated the Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles 4-1 in their return to the win column.
The Hawks have more wins than any other team in the NPB and are the only team past the 70-win threshold, yet they lost two games in their last series to the NPB-worst Lions. SoftBank didn’t score more than three runs in the entire series.
Shuta Ishikawa pitched 6.1 innings for the Hawks, allowing six hits and only one earned run. After Ishikawa was replaced, the Golden Eagles failed to record a hit for the rest of the game.
With the regular season winding down, the Hawks are in the driver’s seat to earn the No. 1 seed.
NPB Standings as of Tuesday, September 10
Central League
Pacific League
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WBN NPB: https://worldbaseball.com/league/japan/
Photo Credit: “Harryhawk” Mascot of Baseball team,Fukuoka Softbank Hawks is seen during the J.League J1 match between Sagan Tosu and Vegalta Sendai at Best Amenity Stadium on July 22, 2018 in Tosu, Saga, Japan. (Photo by Masashi Hara/Getty Images)
