The Yomiuri Giants of Nippon Professional Baseball’s “Sugakoba” battery has thrown another no-hitter.
Pitcher Tomoyuki Sugano (34) and catcher Seiji Kobayashi (34) used the battery against the Yakult Swallows at the Jingu Stadium in Japan on Nov. 11.
Sugano earned his second win of the season, throwing 100 pitches over six innings, allowing three hits, four walks and two strikeouts. Kobayashi followed with a perfect pitcher’s lead and a game-winning hit. Sugano and Kobayashi combined for the no-hitter after tossing a seven-inning shutout against Junichi on April 4.
Sugano got off to a clean start with a strikeout in the first inning. In the top of the second, he gave up a leadoff single to Santana, 토토사이트 but fouled out to the catcher to end the inning. Another strikeout in the third.
In the top of the fourth, back-to-back walks to Munetaka Murakami and Santana put runners on first and second. He got Hideki Nagaoka to fly out to center field to end the inning.
The fifth inning was the big one.
Two batters later, he allowed an infield single and a single to left to put runners on first and third. He faced veteran Norichika Aoki. After the game, Sugano said, “I was about to shake my head at the catcher’s sign against Aoki, but then I realized that it would be fine if I left it to Kobayashi.” Kobayashi did as he was told and got a swinging strikeout on a cabinet fastball.
Kobayashi then lined a single to left with two outs in the top of the sixth for the game-winning run. “I shouldn’t say this, but I didn’t think anyone was going to score…,” Sugano joked, adding, “It was a good hit, so I just had to get myself together and throw hard the next inning.”
Sugano got out of a three-out jam in the bottom of the sixth inning, extending his scoreless streak to 13 consecutive innings. “It was a tight game with no runs scored, so I paid more attention to the center of my pitches,” Sugano said after the game.
Yomiuri added a run in the eighth inning and three more in the ninth for a 5-0 victory.
Sugano suffered a career-low in innings pitched when he gave up six runs on six hits, including two home runs, against Yakult at Jingu Stadium on July 17 last year.
Sugano joined Yomiuri as the No. 1 pick in the 2012 draft, while Kobayashi was the No. 1 pick in 2013. After joining the team, 파워볼사이트 they became close friends due to being the same age. Sugano and Kobayashi played in the starting battery on June 4 against Junichi for the first time in 657 days since June 16, 2022, and performed well. They teamed up again on the same day to share a no-hitter. .
Sugano struggled last year, going 4-8 with a 3.36 ERA in 14 games. It was the lowest ERA of his career as a Yomiuri ace. Sugano has won the multi-win title three times (2017, 2018, 2020), the ERA title four times (2014, 2016-2018), the strikeout title twice (2016, 2018), and the winning percentage title once (2020).