Samurai Japan played two friendlies against the Netherlands this past week at Osaka Dome and it went very well for them. On Wednesday, they shut out the Dutch 5-0 with starter Hiroya Miyagi pitching three perfect innings and five other pitchers only giving up one hit. They followed that up with another one hit shutout on Thursday but this time they won by a score of 9-0 with seven of those runs coming in the fifth inning. Japan didn't score many of their twelve total runs by home runs as they only hit two. Shun Mizutani led off the bottom of the first on Wednesday with a solo home run (it would be difficult for him to hit a lead off home run that WASN'T a solo shot) and Yusuke Ohyama had a solo home run of his own in the second game.
This is not the first time Miyagi and Ohyama have suited up for Samurai Japan. Miyagi played in the friendlies against Australia in November of 2022 as well as the World Baseball Classic in 2023. Ohyama played in friendlies against Australia in March of 2018 and Mexico a year later. As far as I can tell, this is the first time that Mizutani has played for the National Team though. Here's cards of all three of them:
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| 2022 Topps Now Samurai Japan Team Set #SJ-5 |
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| 2019 Calbee Samurai Japan #SJ-26 |
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| 2024 Epoch Fighters Premier Edition #36 |
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