
Baseball: Chusei Mannami sparks home run barrage as Fighters beat Giants
TOKYO (Kyodo) -- Chusei Mannami, Torai Fushimi and Shun Mizutani homered in succession to break open the game in the second inning as the Nippon Ham Fighters outgunned the Yomiuri Giants 4-1 in interleague baseball on Tuesday.
Nippon Ham starter Kota Tatsu (4-0) continued his strong season, fanning seven over 6-2/3 innings in which he allowed one run on four hits and three walks.
Mannami broke the ice for the visiting Pacific League club at Tokyo Dome with his 13th home run of the year, a two-run blast to right field off a full-count slider from lefty Haruto Inoue (3-6).
With none out, Fushimi launched a back-to-back bomb off his second pitch from Inoue, lifting it deep over left field.
Inoue retired the next two batters before Mizutani joined the home run party with No. 4 of the season to right.
The Fighters extended their win streak to three, while Yomiuri's loss was their fourth straight, dropping the Central League club below .500.
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The Mainichi
8 hours ago
- The Mainichi
Baseball: Chusei Mannami sparks home run barrage as Fighters beat Giants
TOKYO (Kyodo) -- Chusei Mannami, Torai Fushimi and Shun Mizutani homered in succession to break open the game in the second inning as the Nippon Ham Fighters outgunned the Yomiuri Giants 4-1 in interleague baseball on Tuesday. Nippon Ham starter Kota Tatsu (4-0) continued his strong season, fanning seven over 6-2/3 innings in which he allowed one run on four hits and three walks. Mannami broke the ice for the visiting Pacific League club at Tokyo Dome with his 13th home run of the year, a two-run blast to right field off a full-count slider from lefty Haruto Inoue (3-6). With none out, Fushimi launched a back-to-back bomb off his second pitch from Inoue, lifting it deep over left field. Inoue retired the next two batters before Mizutani joined the home run party with No. 4 of the season to right. The Fighters extended their win streak to three, while Yomiuri's loss was their fourth straight, dropping the Central League club below .500.


SoraNews24
14 hours ago
- SoraNews24
Japanese pro baseball team's Father's Day message misses strike zone, triggers traumatic memories
Tokyo team asked for memories about dads and baseball, found out they're not all good ones. Japan celebrates Father's Day on the same day as the U.S., U.K., and Canada, so last Sunday the Yomiuri Giants, Tokyo's professional baseball team in the Central League, wanted to give a shout-out to baseball-loving dads. The club's official Twitter account sent out a tweet saying 'Today is Father's Day. Do you have any memories about your father and the Giants?' The account even got the ball rolling with an illustrated example, showing a middle-aged man sitting on his sofa with a bowl of potato chips on the table and a Giants game on TV, a smile and his face and his fists pumped, with the caption: 'The Giants determine what kind of mood my dad is in.' 今日は、父の日。あなたのお父さんと ジャイアンツの思い出はありますか。#父とジャイアンツ — 読売巨人軍(ジャイアンツ) (@TokyoGiants) June 14, 2025 The intent, no doubt, was to bring up heartwarming memories of Pop having an extra spring in his step after a big Giants victory, or maybe even to accentuate a cute, still-a-kid-at-heart aspect of his personality as he was a little blue when his favorite team came up short in a close game. Unfortunately, though, by inviting anyone and everyone whose dad's emotional state is affected by the Giants' on-field performance into the conversation, the tweet brought up a lot more than heartwarming family memories, and instead caused some much less pleasant, more traumatic flashbacks for many commenters, whose replies included: 'All of my memories about my dad and the Giants are terrible ones.' 'So if the Giants didn't exist, that dad would have had fewer reasons to get into a bad mood.' 'That tweet describes my dad perfectly. If they lost, he'd find some tiny excuse to kick me…That's why I lost all interest in baseball.' 'It was the worst if they were playing a night game, my dad would monopolize the TV. Then he'd fall asleep in the middle of the game, and when I'd change the channel, he'd suddenly wake up and go berserk, yelling 'I was watching that.' I hate baseball.' 'Instead of a dad who just loves baseball, he was a bullying dad who'd change how he treated his family based on how a single baseball game turned out.' 'My dad is a Tigers [the Giants' rival] fan, and if they lose to the Giants he gets pissed off about all sorts of things he normally wouldn't get worked up over.' 'Episodes of Dragon Ball would get preempted if the Giants game ran late, and dads would yell if they lost, so I think there are a lot of kids who think of the Giants as their sworn enemies.' 'Getting so into the game that you can't control your emotions – that's baseball!' 'It almost seems like the person who created this tweet actually hates the Giants.' It wasn't all bad memories, as one commenter chimed in to say that neither they or their father are the type to get angry over sports, and so they're a family of 'calm but passionate Giants fans.' Perhaps the most significant reaction came from someone saying the tweet felt like something from the Showa period, which lasted from 1926 to 1989, but feels out of place in the current Reiwa period, which started in 2019. Japanese societal expectations about the role of fathers has shifted quite a bit in the last 100 years, and while most dads in Japan still feel a strong pressure to provide for their children economically, there's also an increased sense that they need to be good role models for interpersonal and communication skills, too, which would include having the maturity to not get bent out of shape because their favorite baseball team lost, and to not let such frustrations negatively impact how they treat the other members of their family. In the Giants' defense, the intent of the tweet pretty clearly wasn't to give dads a pass for having a short fuse if the team loses, and the goal was no doubt to humanize dads by showing that they're fun-loving, passionate people too. In order to get that message across, a more accentuate-the-positive choice of words probably would have worked better, something like 'My dad's smile gets even bigger when the Giants win,' so hopefully they'll come up with some better phrasing by the time next Father's Day rolls around. Source: Twitter/@TokyoGiants via Jin Top image: Pakutaso ● Want to hear about SoraNews24's latest articles as soon as they're published? Follow us on Facebook and Twitter!


Asahi Shimbun
2 days ago
- Asahi Shimbun
MLB/ Ohtani could make mound return in June, Sasaki appears likely to be sidelined for lengthy stretch
LOS ANGELES--Shohei Ohtani could return to a major league mound in the next two weeks but Los Angeles Dodgers rookie right-hander Roki Sasaki has paused his throwing program and is set for a lengthy layoff. Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said Ohtani will throw to hitters for a fourth time this week and 'potentially' it could be the two-way star's final batting practice session before his first big league pitching appearance since Aug. 23, 2023, for the Los Angeles Angels. 'He's getting very eager, very excited,' Roberts said. 'And I think there's a point where, in kind of hearing from Shohei, that the effort it takes to throw live BP and then to play a game, (that we'd rather) use those bullets in a game.' A three-time MVP, Ohtani entered Sunday's game with a .290 average, an NL-leading 1.023 OPS and 25 homers. With Sasaki (right shoulder impingement), Blake Snell (left shoulder inflammation) and Tyler Glasnow (right shoulder inflammation) on the injured list, the Dodgers have resorted to bullpen games. 'I think the thought is that, given where we're at right now, anything he can give us (on the mound) is additive,' Roberts said of Ohtani, 'even if it's an inning or two innings on the front end' Sasaki has not pitched in a game since May 9 and is not part of the team's long-term pitching plans this season. 'I think that's what the mindset should be,' Roberts said. Being thrust into this environment certainly was a big undertaking for him, and now you layer in the health part and the fact he's a starting pitcher, knowing what the build-up (required to return) entails … I think that's the prudent way to go about it.' Sasaki, 23, went 1-1 with a 4.72 ERA in eight starts after joining the Dodgers from the Pacific League's Chiba Lotte Marines, averaging less than 4 1/3 innings per start. His walked 22 and struck out 24 in 34 1/3 innings and his fastball averaged 95.7 mph, down 3-4 mph from his average in Japan. Roberts said Sasaki was pain-free when he resumed throwing in early June, but the pitcher was shut down after feeling discomfort this past week. Sasaki recently received a cortisone injection in the shoulder; Roberts said no further scans are planned. 'I don't think it's pain,' Roberts said. 'I don't know if it's discomfort, if it's tightness, if he's just not feeling strong, whatever the adjective you want to use. That's more of a question for Roki, as far as the sensation he's feeling. 'He's just not feeling like he can ramp it up, and we're not going to push him to do something he doesn't feel good about right now.'