Starter Yumeto Kanemaru threw two innings in Japan’s 2-0 combined perfect game win over Team All-Europe at the Kyocera Dome in Osaka, Japan Thursday. (Photo Courtesy of WBSC)
OSAKA, Japan – When Samurai Japan batted, the drums in the right field stands thundered and the 25,379 fans in the Kyocera Dome chanted, clapped, and sang.
But when Team All-Europe’s Juremi Profar stepped up to bat, the 27th batter for All-Europe, the 26 before him had all been retired. There was no chanting, no drums, no singing, despite the entire stadium knowing the possibility that hung on Profar’s at-bat.
And when the Curacaoan struck out to end Japan’s 2-0 victory Thursday in game two of the 2024 CARNEXT Samurai Japan Series and cap a perfect game that saw six Japan pitchers combine to strike out 15 All-Europe batters and Chihiro Sumida throw an immaculate inning, the Japan players didn’t mob pitcher Atsuki Taneichi on the mound.
They celebrated as if it were a regular win; calmly, reserved, with handshakes and light pats on the back. Such is the reserved Japanese culture.
Samurai Japan has thrown a combined Perfect Game against Team Europe!
Yumeto Kanemaru, Yuto Nakamura, Shinya Matsuyama, Shota Watanabe, Chihiro Sumida, and Atsuki Taneichi also combined for 15 strikeouts. pic.twitter.com/Mbjow4TWGu
— Yakyu Cosmopolitan (@yakyucosmo) March 7, 2024
Starter Yumeto Kanemaru and Yuto Nakamura, the reliever who came on to pitch the third for Japan, are college baseball players who made their first appearance for the senior Japan national team, but youth or inexperience didn’t matter.
“When you have two guys out of college throwing 95, 96 with the splinter and changeup like they were throwing – pretty much all pitches for strikes, it doesn’t matter if they’re college guys or pro guys, these guys could have shut down any offense today,” said All-Europe manager Marco Mazzieri.
“The fastball had a straight trajectory, and both the changeup and the splitter felt good, so it was satisfying,” said Kanemaru in a statement emailed to the media.
Japan got on the board in the second when Yudai Yamamoto’s sac fly sent Shunsuke Tamura, who reached base on an error by All-Europe third baseman Alex Liddi, in to score to make it 1-0.
Then Nakamura sent Sharlon Schoop, Martin Muzik, and Edison Valerio down in order in the third with just 11 pitches.
“Being on the mound for Samurai Japan, and having on my back the players I always used to watch on TV, gave me the strength to pitch at the best of my ability,” Nakamura said.
On came Shinya Matsuyama to pitch the fourth, and he retired the top of the Europe lineup in order, again just 11 pitches.
Then came Chihiro Sumida to throw the sixth, and down went Schoop, Muzik, and Valerio, striking out the side on nine straight pitches.
All-Europe’s best chance at a hit came in the bottom of the seventh when Delano Selassa hit a liner to left center, but Japan center fielder Misho Nishikawa made a diving grab to take away what would have like been a double and keep the perfect game alive. Sumida then got Marek Chlup to ground out to short and struck out Liddi to end the seventh.
Nishikawa, who also plays college baseball in Japan, earned plaudits from Mazzeri for his defensive effort.
“I think defensively, he’s on another planet. He’s in a game on his own because the plays he made last night and tonight, those are probably hit 95% of the time with anybody else out there,” Mazzieri said.
What a catch in CF by Nishikawa to keep the perfect game alive! pic.twitter.com/dBQDKyyEsL
— Jeff (@INTLBaseball24) March 7, 2024
In the eighth, Lino hit a bouncer back the the mound that caromed off the glove of pitcher Atsuki Taneichi and lost some velocity, but shortstop Kotaru Kurebayashi charged the ball, snared it with one hand and fired to first in time to end the half inning.
An inning later, pinch hitter Wander Encarnacion ripped the first offering from Taneichi opposite field down the right field line, but the ball sliced just foul, and two pitches later, he fanned on a fastball and returned to the dugout, the 13th strikeout victim of the night for the Japan pitching staff.
Muzik followed him, and Taneichi sent him back to the dugout with five pitches, then retired Profar with three straight swinging strikes to close out the win and the perfect game.
“Today, we witnessed something amazing,” All-Europe starter Markus Solbach said when asked his thoughts on the performance by the Japan pitchers. ” “A perfect game happens so few of the times. And what I can take from it is that they came out and they threw so many strikes. And I think every [Japan] pitcher has a splitter, and it might be a pitch that I have to learn, because it feels like it’s unhittable.”
NOTEBOOK: All-Europe did not advance a runner past second base in the series. … The six Japan pitchers completed the perfect game with 101 pitches.