Card Of The Week April 12

I wanted to highlight two things that happened this past week in NPB.  I decide to use Epoch One cards for both events.

On Tuesday, pitcher Hiroto Saiki struck out 16 Swallows, tying the Central League record for most strikeouts in a game.  Curiously, Saiki did it in eight innings before being replaced by a relief pitcher, denying him the chance to set a new record or, potentially, tying the overall NPB record of 19 which was set by Koji Noda in 1995 and tied by Roki Sasaki during his perfect game in 2022.  Here's a card of Saiki from 2023 when he threw a complete game, three hit shutout against the Marines (although he "only" struck out 12 in the game):

2023 Epoch One #393

On Wednesday, the Dragons beat the Baystars 6-4 in extra innings with Akira Neo getting the win in relief.  It was the first victory for Neo at the ichi-gun level.  Neo was originally drafted as a position player by Chunichi in the first round of the 2018 draft.  After struggling at the plate for much of his first three seasons, he converted to pitching in 2022 - he had been a two way player in his high school days with Osaka Toin.  To be fair, I'm not sure his pitching has been much of an improvement over his hitting but it is notable that he finally notched a win.  Here are two cards for him - one is from when he was drafted in 2018 and the other was from his first appearance on the mound for the top team - it was in Hiroshima on May 21st, 2022:

2018 Epoch One #675

2022 Epoch One #299