Yoshinobu Yamamoto of the Nippon Professional Baseball Orix has extended his streak of quality starts (QS) to eight games since the start of the season. He moved into first place in the league in ERA.
Yamamoto took the mound on June 6 against the Yomiuri Giants in an interleague game at the Kyocera Dome in Osaka, Japan. He threw 96 pitches over eight innings, allowing one run on four hits with six strikeouts and no walks. The Ducks won 2-1 to stay in first place in the Pacific League.
Yamamoto retired the first three batters he faced before reaching on a fielding error to lead off the second inning. He pitched a no-hitter through three innings.
With a 2-0 lead in the fourth, he gave up a leadoff single to Hayato Sakamoto and a run-scoring single to Sho Nakata with two outs.
Yamamoto allowed leadoff singles in the fifth and seventh innings but did not allow a runner to advance to second base. With one out in the seventh inning, manager Yomiuri Hara brought in Shinnosuke Shigenobu to pinch-hit for a foreign hitter, Walker. The change was made to wait for a bunt.
Yamamoto threw a 154-kilometer fastball 먹튀검증, and Shigenobu laid down a sacrifice bunt, but was thrown out on a catcher’s interference. A grounder to second base, a fly ball to left field and a foul fly to right field in the eighth inning ended a three-pitch double play and turned the ball over to the bullpen in the ninth. Yamazaki, who has 11 holds, earned his first save of the season.
The Oryx took a 2-0 lead in the third inning on Tomoya Mori’s RBI double up the middle.
Yamamoto is 5-2 with a 1.82 ERA in eight starts this season. Along with his recent four-game winning streak, he has pitched a quality start in all eight games to open the season.
Yamamoto, who has led the league in four categories (wins, ERA, strikeouts, and winning percentage) for the second straight year, has pitched 16 innings of one-run ball in his last two starts. His wins are tied for second, one behind Yuji Nishino (Chiba Lotte, 6). He is fourth in strikeouts with 57. He is 12 behind leader Roki Sasaki (Chiba Lotte, 69).