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The story
In Central League play on September 10, the Yomiuri Giants edged the Chunichi Dragons 5-3 to extend their winning streak. Izumiguchi’s go-ahead hit turned the game, and closer Raidel Martinez notched career save No. 250 against Chunichi — the very team he once closed games for. 250 saves is generally seen as the benchmark for Meikyukai (Golden Players Club) induction, and reaching it against his old team drew a wave of congratulations on the 5ch live-commentary board. Meanwhile, the gap to first-place Hanshin narrowed to 1.5 games, and the thread was split over how to read the magic number given the games remaining, worries about Hanshin’s lineup, and opinions on managerial strategy in the pennant race.
Chunichi 0 1 0 2 0 0 0 0 0 ｜3
Giants 0 1 2 0 0 0 0 2 X ｜5
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Source: nikkansports.com / Original article here
What people said
he really knows how to mix veterans and youngsters.
Hey, quit copy-pasting! (calling out repeated/copied posts)
Best way possible to repay his old team!
That's just not it — I don't even want to see his face next year!
He'll probably get it later.
Same with Tanaka (Ma-kun) — Sakamoto presented it to him afterward too.
Only 2 games left head-to-head with Hanshin.
Effectively more like a 3.5-game gap.
No need for Hanshin to panic yet.
Exactly this — the real gap is bigger than the standings show.
The problem is those 2 games aren't back-to-back, they're spread out.
Fine if they win as planned, but if they lose there's no way to make it up.
Harimoto (the Meikyukai chairman) only died yesterday, you know.
I'm a Hanshin fan, but something's off with this team.
Morishita in particular is only swinging for home runs. Fujikawa leaves his starters in way too long, and he keeps running out veterans like Itohara and Nishi who don't belong on the active roster.
Honestly, Hanshin fans don't even want back-to-back titles that badly.
Because you know we'll just get crushed by SoftBank anyway.
We do want it though —
hoping for back-to-back titles.
I don't even care if we lose in the finals, I just want the pennant.
What's the point of those scrub Giants ("kyokasu," a common 5ch slur for the team) winning anything?
Because Hanshin still has 20 games left, so their magic number is 17.
(´・ω・`)
Kind of like Nobunaga picking Ieyasu over Hideyoshi, huh?
Worth watching how the Giants handle his future after this.
Even if they don't win it all, coming close would be something.
But getting demolished by Hanshin every time is a problem.
If interim skipper Hashigami keeps fighting through the regular season and the Climax Series, he might get bumped up from acting manager to full manager.
As a fan of another Central League team, I'm honestly grateful whenever the Giants stick to their one-track "homegrown players only" managerial policy — it's a nice handicap for them.
But if Hashigami becomes full manager, that's the end of the homegrown-only tradition, and the Giants lose that self-imposed handicap going forward (´・ω・`)
Sugano, Griffin, Togo, Yamazaki Taisei —
if even one of them had stayed healthy, they'd have run away with the pennant easily.
Okamoto, Sugano, and Griffin are all healthy though.
2 Giants ○×13
3 Yokohama (DeNA) ●×4
4 Tokyo (Yakult) ●×15
5 Chunichi ●×17
6 Hiroshima ●×19
Guess it's basically decided for the BayStars only (last place, that is).
Hanshin's just too weak.
Sounds like a team full of guys only thinking about their own stats — wide open for the taking.
407 Iwase Hitoki
381 Daimajin (Sasaki Kazuhiro) (incl. 129 in MLB)
313 Takatsu Shingo (27 in MLB)
258 Hirano Yoshihisa (8 in MLB) ※
250 Masuda Naoya ※
250 Martinez ※
246 Yamazaki Yasuaki ※
245 Fujikawa Kyuji (2 in MLB)
237 Matsui Yuki (1 in MLB)
234 Saphate
234 Kobayashi Masahide (6 in MLB)
MLB 400+
652 Rivera
601 Hoffman
494 Jansen ※
478 Smith
441 Kimbrel ※
437 Rodriguez
424 Franco
422 Wagner
400 Chapman ※
Matsui Yuki should've stuck it out in Japan a bit longer before heading to the US.
Matsui wasn't even a closer to begin with.
He got shelled as a starter and somehow ended up closing games before anyone noticed.
I doubt most people even know his save total.
Seriously, shouldn't there be player compensation for a trade like this? Kind of a buzzkill.
I'll throw in Richard (as compensation).
Background and Key Points of the Discussion
For pitchers, 250 saves is generally treated as one benchmark for Meikyukai (Golden Players Club) induction, and Martinez reached that mark against Chunichi — the team he himself closed games for until just a few years ago. As a reference point for how converted closers stack up, the thread cited a list of career save totals, which drew plenty of interest. On the pennant race, the Giants have closed the gap with Hanshin to 1.5 games, but posters also noted that Hanshin’s larger number of remaining games means the magic number won’t drop right away — a nuance that’s easy to overlook if you look only at the raw game difference. Note: several posts making sweeping, disparaging generalizations about residents of a specific region have been excluded from this article.
※This article is excerpted and summarized from the 5ch (Geinou/Sports Express+) thread “[Baseball] Central League: Giants 5-3 Dragons [9/10] — Giants Win Again as Martinez Nails 250th Save vs. Chunichi, Izumiguchi’s Go-Ahead Hit Sinks Dragons“.
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