A typhoon crossing Japan’s largest island, Honshu, washed out Tuesday’s high school baseball championships at Koshien Stadium as well as forcing teams to stay away from pro games that were to be held indoors in Osaka and Nagoya.
The Hanshin Tigers went into their game in Hiroshima having won 10 straight for the first time since 2007 with a chance their magic number will “light up.”
Tuesday’s games
Carp 7, Tigers 6: At New Hiroshima Citizens Stadium, Hiroshima closer Takuya Yasaki pulled this one out of the fire. Two days after surrendering back-to-back home runs in Nagoya to take the loss in extra-innings, the first two batters again reached base in the ninth against Yasaki, but a double play allowed him to survive Takumu Nakano‘s RBI single and still record his
Rookie Shota Morishita homered with Koji Chikamoto on in the first. Kaito Kozono tied it with a two-run homer in the bottom of the first. After both starting pitchers caught a tail-end-of-the-order breather in the second, Chikamoto singled with one out in the third, Takumu Nakano doubled and Morishita doubled in both of them before scoring himself.
The Carp narrowed the gap to a run in the fifth on an RBI double from Ryoma Nishikawa, who scored on Tsubasa Aizawa‘s pinch-hit single off Junya Nishi, who struck out Shogo Sakakura with the tying run at third to end the inning and roared coming off the mound.
The Tigers’ reprieve, however, was brief. Lefty Nik Turley (7-1), Hiroshima’s third pitcher, worked a 1-2-3 sixth, and Matt Davidson tied it, leading off the Carp’s sixth with his 12th homer, off reliever Kosuke Baba (2-1), who issued back-to-back one-out walks. After a rain delay, Hiroya Shimamoto inherited the two-on one-out predicament and surrendered two-out RBI singles to Kaizono and Nishikawa as Hiroshima took a two-run lead.
The loss denied the Tigers their first 11-game win streak since 1982.
Continue reading NPB news: Aug. 15, 2023