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.

Tomoyuki Sugano, the winner of the last two Sawamura Awards as Japan’s most impressive starting pitcher, threw his first shutout of the season to lift the Yomiuri Giants to a four-game lead in the Central League ahead of the Hiroshima Carp, whose offense has continued to struggle.

The Carp, who led the CL in on-base percentage each of the last three seasons, rank fourth this year.

Central League

Swallows 3, Carp 1

At Mazda Stadium, Yakult won the first game of a series for the first time since May 11, as Yasuhiro Ogawa (3-8) struck out six and allowed a run over seven innings to earn the win over Hiroshima.

Shota Nakayama, the Swallows’ second draft pick last autumn, homered for third time in 37 pro at-bats when he helped spoil a second-straight strong start from Allen Kuri (3-4) with a second-inning solo home run. The Carp tied it in the fourth on a Seiya Suzuki walk and singles by Alejandro Mejia and Xavier Batista.

The Swallows, however, took the lead in the sixth on a Norichika Aoki single, a Kuri wild pitch and a two-out error on shortstop Kosuke Tanaka on a ball that missed his glove and went through his legs.

“It may have been an irregular hop, but I had to stop it,” Tanaka said. “I lack sufficient skill.”

“Because Kuri pitched so well, so I need to apologize. Everyone battled so hard without ever giving up but I was unable to maintain a good rhythm. For me to make a mistake like that led to our loss.”

Kuri, who was coming off his first career shutout a week earlier, allowed two runs, one earned, while striking out seven in six innings.

Giants 6, Dragons 0

At Tokyo Dome, Tomoyuki Sugano (8-4) struck out six and got himself out of a one-out, bases-loaded pickle to throw his first shutout of the season in Yomiuri’s win over Chunichi.

Yoshiyuki Kamei led off the first inning with a home run and Christian Villanueva, Hayato Sakamoto and Yoshihiro Maru each homered for the Giants.

The game highlights are HERE.

BayStars 4, Tigers 0

At Yokohama Stadium, DeNA rookie Taiga Kamichatani (5-3) struck out eight and walked one over 5-2/3 innings, and nine of the last 10 Hanshin hitters made out against the BayStars bullpen to stretch the Tigers’ scoreless inning streak to 23.

Keita Sano homered and had an RBI double, while Yamato Maeda continued to weave his late-inning magic by singling in two insurance runs in the eighth inning.

Pacific League

Hawks 8, Eagles 6

At Yafuoku Dome, Yurisbel Gracial drove in six runs, including two with an eighth-inning RBI single off Alan Busenitz (1-2) that reclaimed SoftBank’s lead and took Cuban compatriot Livan Moinelo (1-1) off the hook in a see-saw win over Rakuten.

Moinelo blew a 5-4 lead in the top of the eighth by issuing a one-out walk to Jabari Blash and a two-run homer from left-handed-hitting Ginji Akaminai. The Hawks, however, loaded the bases on three singles off Busenitz in the eighth, and Gracial, who blasted his 17th home run in the first inning, singled in two runs.

“It’s not easy to get the hits that win the game for your team, but I’ve been hitting very well, and I’m happy to get six RBIs,” said the 33-year-old Gracial.

Hiroshi Kaino struck out two in the ninth to record his fourth save as understudy for absent frontline closers Dennis Sarfate and Yuito Mori. The rookie has struck out 38 batters in 29-1/3 innings.

The win lifted the Hawks three games clear of the second-place Eagles at the top of the PL standings.

The game highlights are HERE.

Fighters 9, Lions 1

At Sapporo Dome, Nippon Ham continued to beat up on Seibu right-hander Kona Takahashi (7-5), who lasted a season-low 2-2/3 innings his last time out against the Fighters.

Takahashi left a lot of pitches up in the zone in the second, the Fighters put good swings on them and the first eight balls in play all went for hits in an eight-run inning.

Catcher Shingo Usami, who joined the Fighters in a four-way trade last week, got his first hits with Nippon Ham, going 3-for-4 with a double and two RBIs. It was the first three-hit game of his career.

“We’d been losing ever since I got here, so it feels good to win,” he said.

The game highlights are HERE.

Buffaloes 6, Marines 5, 10 innings

At Kyocera Dome, with the score tied 5-5, Orix loaded the bases in both the ninth and 10th innings, with both innings ending on video replays in a win over Lotte.

The first one overturned the call on the field and kept the game alive when Lotte center fielder Takashi Ogino threw a runner out at the plate to end the ninth. The 10th ended when the Marines were unable to get the force at home plate on a grounder to short that was ruled an infield single.

Brandon Laird hit his 22nd home run to leadoff the Marines’ three-run seventh — assisted by two walks and an error by Buffaloes’ first baseman Chris Marrero. However, Marrero’s second homer of the season, a leadoff shot in the bottom of the inning, tied it 5-5 and gave him something to celebrate on his 31st birthday.

Brandon Dickson retired the Marines in order in the eighth, and his teammates loaded the bases with no outs in the bottom of the inning on a double, an intentional walk and an error by Laird at third base. But Marines closer Naoya Masuda struck out a batter and got a fly out to shallow center that Koji Oshiro very nearly scored on.

Tyler Eppler (4-2) worked around a two-out single in the 10th, and earned the win on Oshiro’s one-out RBI infield single.

The game highlights are HERE.

News

Carp send Shimozuru to Eagles

The Hiroshima Carp have agreed on a trade with the Rakuten Eagles that will send 31-year-old minor league outfielder Ko Shimozuru, who made brief but high-impact contributions to the Carp’s pennants in 2016 and 2018, in exchange for 26-year-old minor league infielder Takumi Miyoshi.