2022 Seibu Lions Weekly Digest: Yamakawa's milestone gives a boost

 

===

The Saitama Seibu Lions went a combined 4-1 against the Chiba Lotte Marines and Rakuten Eagles. They current sit in A-class just above the Marines and Buffaloes with a 36-34-1 record.

===

Chiba Lotte Marines

The Lions were able to split the series with a strong pitching performance from Wataru Matsumoto and a bullpen which shut the door.   Matsumoto even carried a no-hitter into the 7th inning. 

While the Lions were able to stay aggressive on Roki Sasaki's fastball, they couldn't stop his secondary pitches from the slider to curve in a Game 2 loss where Dietrich Enns did all that he could.

Lions 3 Marines 0

Marines 2 Lions 1

===

Rakuten Eagles 

The Lions swept the Eagles with just enough pitching to do so. Jantzen Witte hit his first career HR and even had a three-hit game over the weekend. 

Hotaka Yamakawa had two solo HRs on Sunday while Seiji Kawagoe also has a strong series with three RBIs in the first game. Kaito Yoza, Kona Takahashi and Katsunori Hirai did their jobs as starters while Tatsushi Masuda escaped a late jam in one of the games. 

Lions 4 Eagles 3

Lions 2 Eagles 0

Lions 2 Eagles 0

===

Ikusei departure reveals a scandal 

Seibu Lions OF Keishin Kawamura resigned and left the team for personal reasons earlier this month. 

A report this week revealed he was wanted for receiving fraudulent benefits as a university student. In the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, he posted as a small business owner and applied for financial aide with false tax returns. 

He returned the money since, but the damage and investigation was already done. Kawamura was not arrested as a result and surrendered by leaving the team.

After seeking a Spanish interpreter in the offseaon, the Lions made midseason ikusei signings with OF Romer Cuadrado and P Jasier Herrera joining the team.

===

Akiyama signs with Hiroshima 

After taking a picture with Lions legend Koji Akiyama, Shogo Akiyama returned to Japan after being granted a release from his minor league contract with the San Diego Padres. 

Akiyama will sign a three-year contract worth ¥500 million with the Hiroshima Carp. It was reported the Lions offered a two year contract while the SoftBank Hawks had a three-year offer like the Carp. 

In the report, he said he wanted a new challenge in the Central League and valued the stability in a three-year contract. Before the 2022 season began, the Cincinnati Reds released him and are paying Akiyama $8 million for the year. 

===

Follow us on Twitter @GraveyardBall

Lions having a mixed bag through interleague play

 ===

The Saitama Seibu Lions are in the hunt, but the flaws prevent them from being good. Through games on June 21, they sit in A-class with a .500 record barely ahead of the Chiba Lotte Marines and Orix Buffaloes.

Up to this point there have been multiple key points to how they got here.

===

Starting Pitching has stepped out up

The Lions have the lowest team ERA in the entire NPB through June 21. Looking back to 2015-2016, the pitching was the opposite with an injured ace and no proven supporter.

Kona Takahashi has lived up to being an ace and not just a team ace by default. Kaito Yoza has done a nice job filling in for an injured Tatsuya Imai. Katsunori Hirai has been great since filling in as a spot starter. 

Even Chihiro Sumida and Shunsuke Sato have promise as rookies.

What has made this rotation great is the foreign signing of Dietrich Enns, who has kept his rotation spot since being with the ichi-gun. 

===

Bullpen reliability has been critical

Tatsushi Masuda came off a brutal 2021 season, but flipped the script thus far in 2022. Kaima Taira had a handful of blown games, but he's been fine as the setup man with Yoshinobu Mizukami taking the 8th and 7th innings, respectively. 

Even Keisuke Honda, Takeru Sasaki and Ryosuke Moriwaki are decent in middle relief. The depth at this position has been one of the best. It's possible Bo Takahashi could be a long term project which the coaches will evaluate as the season goes on.

===

Yamakawa is the Lions offense

On the flip side, the offense is what holds the Lions back from being great. They've been on the losing end of two no-hitters this season and the scoring is based on how Yamakawa does. 

Only Brian O'Grady among qualifies hitters has an OPS above .700. Speaking of O'Grady, he's been a good addition and it's possible his double number should be less due to some hits being close to home runs. 

The Lions continue to shuffle lineups in hope of having a stable outfield. 

===

This team has made progress, yet the offensive numbers indicate they could come up short. There is an entire second half remaining and it will be an uphill battle. 

===

Follow us on Twitter @GraveyardBall

2022 Seibu Lions Digest: Interleague play takes turn for worse

 

===

With a poor second week of interleague play, the Lions have fallen to 26-30-1 and currently sit in fourth place in the Pacific League, trailing the Orix Buffaloes by two games. 

===

Chunichi Dragons

The Lions exploded for eight runs and took Shinnosuke Ogasawara out of the game in the fourth inning. However, Shunsuke Sato couldn't keep up either in what was a slugfest. Nien Ting Wu was the hero with a late two-run home run and a combined four RBIs.

Brian O'Grady returned in his first game back since having a child and had an RBI double that nearly led to a HR. 

Kaito Yoza had another quality outing with six innings and one run allowed in a narrow 2-1 win. Seiji Kawagoe even had the game-winning timely hit, scoring Aito. 

Chihiro Sumida struggled in game three as the Lions couldn't pull off a sweep in Nagoya.

Lions 8 Dragons 5

Lions 2 Dragons 1

Dragons 6 Lions 3

===

Yokohama DeNA Baystars

The Lions struggled to score in two out of the three games as they were shutout in one of them. 

They scored an eight-run inning for the second game taking advantage of errors and Brian O'Grady hit a home run. Katsunori Hirai earned a win as a spot starter. 

As the third game was close, it took a sayonara HR from Takumi Kuriyama to take the series after a decent start from Dietrich Enns. 

Baystars 1 Lions 0

Lions 10 Baystars 5

Lions 3 Baystars 2

===

Hanshin Tigers

The Lions started well with a 2-0 win, but couldn't score nor pitch after that and lost this series in Koshien to a last place team. They had a chance in the second game when they scored four runs in one inning, but came up short.

Lions 2 Tigers 0

Tigers 5 Lions 4

Tigers 6 Lions 1 

===

Yakult Swallows

The nightmare continued in Jingu as Yamakawa was the primary offense again, yet the Swallows pitching showed why they won the Japan Series in 2021. 

There were two one-run losses with a late chance in the second game, but Takeya Nakamura was out. Dietrich Enns had a tie game situation, but struggled in the 6th inning as the team was swept. 

Swallows 1 Lions 0

Swallows 3 Lions 2

Swallows 5 Lions 3

===

Safe to say this Lions team isn't good. It's frustrating how the pitching has mostly done a good job up to this point, yet even they've faltered a bit with Enns and Yoza not playing well.

Overall, Yamakawa is the Lions offense while we're hoping Gakuto Wakabayashi can rebound as he returned form injury at the start of interleague play.

There are six more games to go, they need to at least win three of those if they want to say they're competitive. 

===

Follow us on Twitter @GraveyardBall