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The story
On September 6, the Giants came from behind to beat the Carp in the 11th inning thanks to timely hits from Takuya Kai and Hayato Sakamoto, taking a series win over Hiroshima for the first time in two years and cutting the gap to first-place Hanshin to 3.5 games. The game also marked the first time in the club’s 11,573-game history that it used 10 pitchers in relief, sparking talk about how often the bullpen arms have been working on back-to-back days. On the thread, the debate over the starting shortstop job pitted error totals against UZR for Yuta Izumiguchi, Kaito Muramatsu, and Hideki Nagaoka, with the two metrics telling very different stories. The same day brought a stack of other news too — Masahiro Tanaka’s demotion to the farm, and Seino Transportation’s first Intercity Baseball Tournament title in 12 years.
What people said
Giants Acting-Manager Thread 126
https://news.yahoo.co.jp/articles/7865ade664ff0c2d395ad696c5b39718d9d06599
https://news.yahoo.co.jp/articles/626f14d163c317db33b3b9b8e8e406a60aa1f075
https://news.yahoo.co.jp/articles/da5f75525029e3b1fcde6f976cf10c915013283e
On the 6th, the Giants are going for a three-game sweep of the Carp at Mazda Stadium. Relievers Hotta, Morita, Nakagawa, Ei Tanaka, and Martinez are all working their second straight day. It'll depend on how each pitcher is feeling, but with the team chasing first-place Hanshin by just 3.5 games and every game a must-win, sending some of them out for a third day in a row is very much on the table.
NTT West 0-2 Seino Transportation
https://news.yahoo.co.jp/articles/3b2d2674612a7b2435f2f0dea93380bf2cea2b46
NTT West 0-4 Seino Transportation
There's really only Muramatsu and Nagaoka in the conversation besides him
Muramatsu: 109 G, .262, 5 HR, 38 RBI, OPS .724, 15 errors
Nagaoka: 107 G, .255, 8 HR, 35 RBI, OPS .686, 9 errors
1.9 — Izumiguchi
1.5 — Muramatsu
-10.5 — Nagaoka
https://news.yahoo.co.jp/articles/d616b13ce051cad5d42dfd36c214c15959bbeea4
Central League
Added to active roster
Yokohama DeNA BayStars — Pitcher #12 Yu Takeda
Removed from active roster
Yomiuri Giants — Pitcher #11 Masahiro Tanaka
Hiroshima Toyo Carp — Pitcher #53 Shun Okamoto
Tokyo Yakult Swallows — Pitcher #70 Yu Hirosawa
*Players cannot be reactivated before September 16.
Pacific League
Added to active roster
Chiba Lotte Marines — Pitcher #48 J. Rukeshi
Removed from active roster
None
https://news.yahoo.co.jp/articles/1c0c2b6671ee6fd060d2fa0fe114b4a64342d7e6
Ryota Wakiya (infielder) — joined the Yomiuri Giants as a 5th-round pick in the 2005 college/industrial-league draft
Takuzo Oshiro (catcher) — joined the Yomiuri Giants as a 3rd-round pick in the 2017 draft
Yuta Izumiguchi (infielder) — joined the Yomiuri Giants as a 4th-round pick in the 2023 draft
Seino Transportation Hardball Baseball Club
Taiga Funasako (pitcher) — joined the Yomiuri Giants as a 5th-round pick in the 2022 draft
https://news.yahoo.co.jp/articles/7e462a06c72938749495b7133770e9a6018b42e6
Instead of letting him rest when he got tired, they threw him into relief, ran him into the ground, and now he's demoted
That's exactly where the Giants do things differently
'Hard-Luck' Arai (fans' nickname for the manager, playing on the word for 'tough/bitter'): 'We're a poor club short on arms, can't be helped'
Arai: 'I'm tearing it all down'
That kind of depth is what matters
Koshien's looking iffy though
NTT West 2-4 Seino Transportation
[All Smiles] Teruaki Sato beaming after getting an award, before the 9/5/2026 game
https://youtu.be/bHH-SRx7c20?si=AY8G-2TSIfI3dH8m
Tsujimoto, who's suited up for Japan's national industrial-league team before, hits a home run
NTT West 3-4 Seino Transportation
NTT West 3-4 Seino Transportation
https://news.yahoo.co.jp/articles/26be46b6eb0e4436e04dd6ad4ba0865a3b4daaea
https://news.yahoo.co.jp/articles/68ba5c32a078d3933eaea6de43a28b69c9e1309c
Yanagi, originally slated to start, will instead pitch in the Giants' three-game series at Tokyo Dome starting on the 8th. With veterans like Wakui and Ono also in the rotation, the manager hinted at a shakeup, weighing each pitcher's rest between outings: 'There's also the question of where's best to slot those guys in. We're keeping an eye on how the schedule shapes up too.'
Background and Talking Points
One detail worth flagging is the roster rule buried in the story: once Masahiro Tanaka came off the active roster, he can’t be reactivated until September 16 — a league-wide NPB rule meant to stop teams from shuffling players in and out too freely, and one casual fans often don’t know about. In the shortstop competition, Nagaoka looks like the safest pair of hands going by error count alone, but once you weight in range via UZR, Izumiguchi and Muramatsu both come out ahead — proof, as the thread found, that no single stat settles who’s actually better. Behind the 10-pitcher-relief story is also a contrast in bullpen philosophy: Hiroshima’s new manager, Takahiro Arai, is said to be deliberately holding back on how often he uses his relievers, while the Giants have kept sending the same arms out day after day. The Intercity tournament, meanwhile, is a national championship for corporate/industrial-league teams, and it doubles as a scouting pipeline into the pros — champions Seino Transportation count Taiga Funasako, now pitching for the Giants, among their alumni.
*This article was compiled and summarized from the 5ch (Hello! Project board) thread “Giants Acting-Manager Thread 127.”
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