Baseball
Nipponham Fighters Showing Signs of Progress Under Popular Manager Tsuyoshi Shinjo
With a recent five-game win streak, the Nipponham Fighters have moved up in the Pacific League standings. They have won 11 of their first 20 games this season.
The season is still young but there are some promising signs that Tsuyoshi Shinjo and the surprising Hokkaido Nipponham Fighters are making progress.
Prior to their 5-1 loss to the Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles on Thursday, April 25, the Fighters had won five in a row with one tie game during that streak to pull within 1½ games of the Pacific League front-running Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks.
As of Friday, April 26, Nipponham has a record of 11 wins, eight losses and one tie, putting the Fighters 2½ games behind SoftBank.
When asked about the prospect of catching the Hawks for first place, Shinjo said he wasn't focusing on that.
"I'm not really thinking about that at the moment," Shinjo said, according to Nikkan Sports. "We are just trying to make every single inning count and trying to do our best offensively."
Even in Thursday's loss in Sendai, the Fighters loaded the bases twice in the ninth inning and could have at least tied it if not for a fine double play by Rakuten third baseman Hideto Asamura.
With none out and the bases loaded, Asamura snared a line drive off the bat of pinch hitter Kazunari Ishii and stepped on the bag for a DP that quashed the chances of a Nipponham comeback.
The Fighters finished in last place in the previous two seasons under the ever-popular Shinjo, who took the helm ahead of the 2022 season.
While it has never been openly stated, it would be fair to assume that a third straight season in the Pacific League cellar would put Shinjo's managerial stint with the Fighters in jeopardy.
But this feels like a different team than the one Shinjo guided the previous two seasons.
Strong Pitching on Display for Nipponham Fighters
First and foremost, the pitching has been superb.
On Saturday, April 20, Koki Kitayama allowed just four hits over the distance for his first career shutout after leading the Fighters to a 2-0 win over the Chiba Lotte Marines at Es Con Field Hokkaido.
Kitayama improved to 2-0 when he struck out seven and walked one batter in a 116-pitch gem. The win allowed the Fighters to move past Lotte into second place in the PL standings.
Go Matsumoto singled in the first inning off Lotte lefty Kazuya Ojima and scored on a Chusei Mannami single to left. Matsumoto also singled in an insurance run in the eighth.
But the real hero among the crowd at Es Con was Kitayama.
"The fans always give me nice applause when I take the mound to start an inning and in the eighth and ninth innings, that was a big boost," Kitayama said, according to Kyodo News.
A Second Consecutive Complete Game
As if that wasn't impressive enough, lefty Takayuki Kato came back the next day and threw a second straight complete game shutout to nail down a three-game sweep for the Fighters over the Marines.
Kato scattered nine hits and a walk over the distance for a 6-0 win that allowed the Fighters to move within one game of the Hawks.
The Fighters infield chipped in, turning four double plays behind Kato, who struck out five and held the Marines scoreless despite putting a runner on in every inning.
"My first three games were painful so today was a relief," Kato said, according to Kyodo News. "I hadn't been carrying my weight so I felt a lot of pressure coming off today."
Kato, who improved to 1-3, started the season 0-3, having allowed eight runs in 15⅓ innings.
"Our pitchers have done a great job of keeping the opposition in check," Shinjo said.
Nipponham Fighters are a Work in Progress on Offense
Offense is still a work in progress for the Fighters. As of Friday, they had scored the second-fewest runs in the Pacific League this season with 56, ahead of only Lotte (51).
But with hitters like Mannami and Matsumoto, the potential for bigger and better things is there.
Mannami continues to show signs of progress and is batting .263 with three homers and 10 RBIs in the first 20 games.
The 24-year-old Mannami hit a career-high 25 homers last season and is aiming to improve on that mark in 2024.
Veteran Matsumoto is off to a modest start with a .215 batting average through 17 games but is only two seasons removed from hitting .347 while driving in a career-high 44 runs.
Whether or not the Fighters can continue this progress through the long, hot summer is a big question but a finish in the top three in the PL standings now seems within reach.
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Author: Jim Armstrong
The author is a longtime journalist who has covered sports in Japan for over 25 years. You can find his articles on SportsLook.