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Chiba Defeats Rakuten 26-0; Watanabe Retires All 27 Eagles Faced

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Chiba Defeats Rakuten 26-0; Watanabe Retires All 27 Eagles Faced
Chiba defeated the Rakuten Eagles 26-0. Tsuyoshi Nishioka went 4 for 7 with a home run, 6 RBIs, 2 singles, and a triple, Benny Agbayani went 2 for 3 with a home run and a RBI, Valentino Pascucci went 4 for 5 with 2 home runs and 7 RBIs, and Makoto Kosaka went 3 for 5 with 3 singles and 3 RBIs. Lotte pitcher, Shunsuke Watanabe, pitched a complete game shutout, giving up one hit, walking 1, and striking out 5. Two double plays erased the only two Eagles to reach base, so Watanabe faced the minimum 27 batters. [Link - Japan Ball] [Box Score - Borisov's Pro Yakyu]

With this score, what is the record for the most runs scored in one NPB game?

[Additional information about Watanabe's performance added by editor from the paper edition of Nikkan Sports.]
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High Scores
[ Author: westbaystars | Posted: Mar 28, 2005 1:52 PM | YBS Fan ]

- With this score, what is the record for the most runs scored in one NPB game?

According to Nikkan Sports (paper edition), this ties for the largest shutout score in NPB history. On July 15, 1946, the Great Ring defeating Gold Star 26-0. This ties four other teams (including Great Ring above) for the fourth higest scoring game in Pro Yakyu history.

Hankyu defeated Nankai 32-2 on April 6, 1940 for the top spot. Daiei just defeated Orix two years ago (August 1, 2003) by a score of 29-1 for second place of all time and the Pacific League record. The third higest score was when Taiyo defeated Chunichi 28-5 on October 17, 1950, setting the long standing Central League record.

Personally, I'm more curious to know how many 27 batter shutouts have been thrown that were not "perfect" games? Having watched Watanabe a few times, I'd have never thought that he would be one to do this. His underarm throwing, hand just centimeters above the ground, while unusual, doesn't usually keep batters from figuring him out too long. Or maybe I've just watched him on bad days. (Note: Nobody would have guessed that Yanagisawa would be the one to break Ichiro's strike out-less streak a number of years ago, either.) Nonetheless, I think that this feat is more impressive than the 26 runs.
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