The SoftBank Hawks served up a Cuban sandwich to the Rakuten Eagles, completing a sweep of their closest Pacific League rivals thanks to big nights from Cubans Yurisbel Gracial and Alfredo Despaigne.

Gracial homered and drove in six runs in Tuesday’s opener and sandwiched Despaigne’s grand slam on Wednesday with a two-homer, five-RBI night to back Kodai Senga in Thursday’s finale as the Hawks won their seventh straight.

Pacific League

Hawks 6, Eagles 3

At Yafuoku Dome, Yurisbel Gracial drove in five runs, and Kodai Senga (9-2) allowed two runs over seven innings on short rest as SoftBank completed a three-game sweep of Rakuten that left the Eagles five games out in second place.

Jabari Blash homered and doubled and scored both of Rakuten’s runs against Senga, who struck out 10. Working on five days rest for the second time this season, Senga was clinging to a one-run lead in the sixth, when he allowed a leadoff single to Hideto Asamura.

With one out and Asamura on second, he threw two good cutters on the outer border of the zone to get to 2-2 against Blash. With everyone in the park knowing a splitter was coming, he nearly bounced one but Blash couldn’t hold up and was called out. After a two-out walk, Senga sent Zelous Wheeler down on strikes — with the help of two borderline calls on the outside corner.

“I couldn’t allow a run there, so I was completely going for strikeouts there,” Senga said. “It worked out well.”

With two on in the bottom of the sixth, and Gracial coming up, the Eagles went to the pen so he would not go 3-for-3 against starter Wataru Karashima (5-4). The lefty came out for right-hander Koji Aoyama, who missed up in the zone, and Gracial hit it just over the inner wall in left.

See game highlights HERE.

Lions 8, Fighters 2

At Sapporo Dome, Mitsuo Yoshikawa, pitching for Nippon Ham for the first time since 2016 following his trade from Yomiuri last week, allowed three runs on three hits and three walks over 2-1/3 innings.

Shuta Tonosaki and Takeya Nakamura did most of the damage for the Lions, each driving in three with a third-inning triple, and a seventh-inning double, respectively.

“(Tonosaki) really did a great job,” Seibu skipper Hatsuhiko Tsuji said. “He really has a knack for hitting breaking pitches right from the start of the at-bat.”

And Yoshikawa admitted he didn’t make it hard on him.

“I left the middle relievers to shoulder too big of a burden,” said Yoshikawa, the PL’s 2012 MVP. “I missed badly with a first-pitch changeup and that ruined everything.”

Zach Neal (3-1) struck out five over six scoreless innings to win his second straight start.

“This ain’t the time to be looking back at things,” Fighters manager Hideki Kuriyama said. “There are simply so many things we need to do.”

See game highlights HERE.

Buffaloes 4, Marines 2

At Kyocera Dome, Masataka Yoshida had a pair of RBI singles, and Shuhei Fukuda broke a 2-2 tie with a fifth-inning RBI triple as Orix beat Lotte.

Rookie Marines lefty Kazuya Ojima (0-2) allowed four runs over six innings to remain winless in his two-game career.

Buffaloes right-hander Brandon Dickson, threw a scoreless ninth, his sixthstraight appearance without allowing a run, to record his fourth save.

See game highlights HERE.

Central League

Giants 5, Dragons 3

At Tokyo Dome, Hayato Sakamoto broke open the scoring with his 24th home run, a second-inning grand slam off lefty Enny Romero (1-2), who walked five of the first 10 batters he faced.

Neither team scored in the first thanks to a pair of inning-ending, bases-loaded double plays

Nobutaka Imamura (2-1), who singled and scored on Sakamoto’s homer, got the win after allowing three runs over six innings, and three relievers pitched in with one scoreless inning apiece with Kota Nakagawa striking out two in the ninth en route to his 11th save.

See game highlights HERE.

Swallows 7, Carp 2

At Mazda Stadium, 22-year-old Yakult rookie Shota Nakayama hit a three-run home run to keep 20-year-old Munetaka Murakami from gabbing all the headlines and seal a three-game sweep of Hiroshima.

A day after Murakami hit a game-breaking grand slam, Nakayama, the Swallows’ second draft pick last year, hit his fourth home run in his 44th at-bat. With one out in the third and the Swallows leading 2-1 after Norichika Aoki’s two-run single, Murakami took Kris Johnson (6-4) deep to the opposite field.

Swallows rookie Keiji Takahashi (2-3) won the duel of lefties, holding Hiroshima’s currently anemic offense to two runs over six innings.

“I began to feel they were sitting on my fastball, so from the fourth inning on, I used a lot more breaking pitches and that got me double plays,” said Takahashi.

Ryota Igarashi, pitching for the first time since June 16, loaded the bases with one out in the ninth, forcing Scott McGough to close it out for his first save in Japan.

BayStars 7, Tigers 2

At Yokohama Stadium, DeNA’s Neftali Soto broke a 2-2, third-inning tie when he doubled and scored on a Yoshitomo Tsutsugo single off Randy Messenger (3-6) in a win over Hanshin.

BayStars rookie Shinichi Onuki (4-3) allowed two runs, one earned, while striking out six over five innings to earn the win.

News

Eagles’ Imae out with eye issues

The Rakuten Eagles have deactivated veteran infielder Toshiaki Imae due to discomfort in his right eye. He reportedly has been complaining of trouble with the eye since before the start of spring training.

“It’s said his vision is a little blurred,” Eagles manager Yosuke Hiraishi said. “It hasn’t gotten better for some days, so rather than push it when he’s anxious about it, perhaps it’s better for him to go down to the farm, reset and come back when it’s better.”

Thirty-eight-year-old lefty Tsuyoshi Wada, who famously capped his first win under Cubs manager Joe Maddon by telling a TV crew, “I am badass,” continued to be a badass as he outpitched Rakuten’s Takayuki Kishi in a win that left the SoftBank Hawks four games ahead of the second-place Eagles in the PL standings.

Pacific League

Hawks 4, Eagles 1

At Yafuoku Dome, a dream matchup between two veterans making comebacks, SoftBank southpaw Tsuyoshi Wada, and Rakuten right-hander Takayuki Kishi proved to be more than nostalgia with 6-1/2 scoreless innings before Alfredo Despaigne’s seventh-inning grand slam settled it.

Wada, who hadn’t won at home in nearly two years due to shoulder trouble, rarely missed in the heart of the zone and gave the Eagles one good chance. But with two on and one out, he jammed Ryosuke Tatsumi and popped him up on an inside fastball and then got a called third strike on a borderline pitch outside.

Kishi, who was injured on Opening Day, pitched out of one jam after another, was razor sharp with runners in scoring position, but he walked Yurisbel Gracial to load the bases in the seventh with one out. Kishi’s control was not sharp, and he kept missing his locations to Despaigne who didn’t get a great swing on a low fastball over the plate, but still knocked it out to center for his 18th home run.

Wada (2-1), who came out after seven, has struck out 11 over his last 12 innings while walking two and allowing one run to earn his second straight win. It was the same approach as last time, relying heavily on his fastball and changeup, although his fastball appeared to have a little more zip and better location.

As he approached 100 pitches, Wada faced Zelous Wheeler with two outs in the seventh. Wada got to 0-2 with three fastballs and then switched to the change, but missed badly with three straight but never wavered. He stuck with the change but got it in the zone and Wheeler waved at the 3-2 pitch.

“It’s been two years since I’ve won here. Sorry,” Wada said. Kishi is a great pitcher, so I thought it would all come down to allowing a single run or not, so that was my plan, to pitch so I wouldn’t give up the first run.”

“Since my first game back was here (on June 5), my pitches have gotten better and better. Tonight, I followed Takuya (Kai). His pitch calling made everything possible, and in the end, I pitched well.”

Asked what it meant to pitch well for a club that is riddled with injuries this year, Wada looked back on his lost 2018 season.

“Last year, I was one of those injured players. I watched the night games, and when we played in the daytime, I followed on TV while I was doing my rehab. Overall, it was a really hard year, but I expected to come back here. I did that in June, and now as I pitch, I feel so much joy.”

“We have a lot of guys who are hurt right now. They are coming back one by one, and when they do, we’re going to be a strong Hawks team.”

The highlights are HERE.

Marines 12, Buffaloes 6

At Kyocera Dome, Lotte’s hitters barelled up one fastball after another from Orix rookie Yudai Aranishi (1-1) in a seven-run, third inning to take an 8-1 lead.

Mike Bolsinger (2-3) allowed two runs through the first five innings, but left with a blister on his foot after Chris Marrero’s two-run, pinch-hit single in the sixth. Bolsinger was charged with six runs over 5-1/3 innings but earned the win.

Steven Moya homered in his first at-bat as a Buffalo after being traded over the weekend from Chunichi with a game-tying solo blast into the upper deck in the second inning.

The highlights are HERE.

Fighters 5, Lions 3

At Sapporo Dome, Seibu starter Ken Togame (3-3) missed too many locations, dropped a ground ball and Nippon Ham got a couple of lucky bounces in a four-run, fourth inning that blew the game up for food against Nippon Ham.

Five Fighters relievers came in after Toru Murata allowed two runs in three-plus innings, with Naoki Miyanishi, Bryan Rodriguez and Naoya Ishikawa each striking out as they shutout the Lions over the final three innings.

The highlights are HERE.

Central League

Giants 7, Dragons 6

At Tokyo Dome, Yomiuri’s Daiki Masuda laid a sweet sacrifice bunt down the third base line, and third baseman Shuhei Takahashi’s low throw to first bounced and Akihiro Wakabayashi scored the winning run against Chunichi.

Giants closer Kota Nakagawa blew the lead with a first-pitch fastball that Takuya Kinoshita hit out to straight-away left for his third career home run, one that wouldn’t have gone out at any of the other main parks in Japan.

The highlights are HERE.

Tigers 4, BayStars 3, 11 innings

At Yokohama Stadium, Koji Chikamoto doubled in the 11th inning, scored the go-ahead run on Kento Itohara’s sac fly, and Rafael Dolis escaped a two-on, no-out jam in the bottom of the inning to record his 15th save as Hanshin came from behind to beat DeNA.

BayStars starter Haruhiro Hamaguchi allowed a run over five innings, but the Tigers tied it against Spencer Patton and Edwin Escobar in the eighth inning.

Swallows 6, Carp 2

At Mazda Stadium, 19-year-old Yakult rookie Munetaka Murakami drove in five runs, four with his 20th home run in a win over struggling Hiroshima.

“I want to keep practicing so I can do better,” said Murakami, who leads the CL with 61 RBIs.

Swallows starter Hayato Terahara (2-1) allowed just two runs over five innings in which he walked four.

Right-hander Casey Lawrence (0-1) made his Japan debut for the Carp after going 3-3 with a 3.25 ERA in 13 Western League games this year. On the farm, he struck out 46 batters in 69-1/3 innings while walking eight. Lawrence allowed six runs over five innings in which he walked four and struck out three.