Tomoyuki Sugano cemented his reputation as Japan's best pitcher on Sunday, when he no-hit the Yakult Swallows in the Yomiuri Giants' 4-0 win in Game 2 of the Central League Climax Series' first stage on Sunday.
Sugano (1-0) didn't allow a baserunner until he walked Tetsuto Yamada with two outs in the seventh inning. He struck out seven and issued just the one walk in his 113-pitch gem at the Swallows' home park, Jingu Stadium.
"It's hard to put into words how this feels," said the 29-year-old who is a strong candidate to win his second-straight Sawamura Award as Japan's most impressive starting pitcher.
(Tomoyuki Sugano)
The win lifts the Giants, who are in their final days under outgoing skipper Yoshinobu Takahashi, into the final stage for the first time since 2015, when they lost the final stage here at Jingu to the Swallows.
Their next test will be in Hiroshima against the league champion Hiroshima Carp, who will take a one-game advantage into the six-game series in their home park.
"We're going to the final stage as challengers," Sugano said. "I want to keep playing alongside manager Takahashi as long as I can."
It was the first postseason no-hitter in Nippon Professional Baseball since Daisuke Yamai and Hitoki Iwase combined on a perfect game to clinch the 2007 Japan Series.
Swallows starter Juri Hara (0-1) retired the first five batters he faced before Hisayoshi Chono took him deep for a second-inning solo home run.
Casey McGehee homered to open the Giants' fourth, and after a walk to Shinnosuke Abe, Yoshiyuki Kamei homered with two outs to make it 4-0 in Hara's final inning of work.
(Casey McGehee hits a solo home run in the fourth inning)
A series of Swallows relievers pitched out of two-out jams in the fifth, seventh and eighth. But none of that mattered, as Yakult's hitters rarely got ahead in counts or got good swings with Sugano locating and commanding all his pitches.
-----
Pacific League Climax Series
Fighters 4, Hawks 2
At Yafuoku Dome, three-straight, two-out, eighth-inning doubles by Haruki Nishikawa, Taishi Ota and Kensuke Konda lifted Nippon Ham in Game 2 over the SoftBank Hawks.
The Fighters now are a win away from advancing to the final stage against the PL champion Seibu Lions for the right to play in the Japan Series. The Hawks, who host the first stage by virtue of finishing ahead of the Fighters in the regular season, can advance with either a win or a tie in Monday's Game 3.
After the Hawks tied the game 2-2 on Tomoki Takata's seventh-inning RBI single, Fighters leadoff man Nishikawa got things rolling against reliever Ren Kajiya (0-1). The left-handed sparkplug golfed a low 0-1 fastball to the gap in right that nearly cleared the low wall in front of the outfield field seats.
Kajiya fooled Ota with a couple of forkballs to get ahead in the count but then only found the strike zone when he missed dead center with a 3-2 fastball that Ota drilled to the gap in left.
(Taishi Ota hits a tiebreaking in the eighth inning)
"We all came here with nothing on our minds but winning. We were prepared and succeeded," Ota said after the Fighters staved off elimination following Saturday's 8-3 rout. "I swung at balls out of the zone and fell behind, but I was eager to hit and I was fortunate it went where it did."
"I'm relieved to have gotten a hit, but we have another game tomorrow and now it's time to prepare for that."
Kondo followed by putting a sweet swing on a forkball in the zone, and plated Ota from second.
