The SoftBank Hawks, who have won more interleague games than any other team in Japan, improved to 4-0 against the Central League on Friday, when they opened their Japan Series-rematch series against the three-time defending CL champion Hiroshima Carp.

In Yokohama, Seibu Lions third baseman Takeya Nakamura singled in a run, his 184th RBI in interleague play, moving him out of a tie with DeNA manager Alex Ramirez for the career interleague lead in runs driven in.

With three wins and two losses on Friday, the Swallows and Buffaloes were rained out, the Pacific League leads this season’s melee 14-9.

Interleague

Hawks 6, Carp 3

At Mazda Stadium, Kodai Senga (6-1) struck out eight over seven scoreless innings, pitching SoftBank past the Carp.

The Hawks broke the ice in the fifth on a two-out, Texas leaguer to right off the bat of career minor leaguer Yusuke Masago. Yurisbel Gracial homered for the fourth-straight game in the sixth, off rookie starter Hiroki Tokoda. Hawks catcher Takuya Kai drove in two more in the inning with a double off the top of the wall in dead center off reliever Yasunori Kikuchi.

Coming off his first loss of the season, Senga gave up three hits and walked two. He retired the last 10 batters he faced. Lefty Livan Moinelo retired the first two Carp batters in the eighth before giving up back-to-back singles and Seiya Suzuki‘s 16th home run of the season.

Yuito Mori worked around a one-out walk to record his 17th save.

Tokoda (5-3) gave up four runs on six hits and two walks, while striking out two over 5-1/3 innings.

Giants 4, Marines 3

At Tokyo Dome, Kazuma Okamoto drove in Yomiuri’s winning run for the second straight night. Restored to the No. 4 spot in the order after he homered to break a 1-1 tie the night before, Okamoto singled home Yoshihiro Maru in a come-from-behind win over Lotte.

Rookie Akihiro Wakabayashi tied it 2-2 in the fourth by homering with a man on against Kota Futaki. The right-hander had retired the first two batters he faced in the inning, and did so again in the fifth before allowing Maru’s two-out double and back-to-back RBI singles from Okamoto and Takumi Oshiro.

Cristopher Mercedes (5-3) allowed just two run on seven hits and four walks over five innings. After three scoreless innings from the bullpen, closer Kota Nakagawa allowed a run in the ninth but nailed down his seventh save.

Futaki (4-4) struck out eight, but walked three and surrendered seven hits over five innings.

Lions 6, BayStars 2

At Yokohama Stadium, Shuta Tonosaki powered the offense and
Kona Takahashi allowed two runs over seven innings as Seibu beat DeNA.

Tonosaki, doubled in a run and scored in the fourth inning, and homered for the third straight game, breaking a 2-2 fifth-inning tie. He doubled in another run in the Lions’ two-run seventh.

Takahashi allowed three hits and two walks, while striking out five and the Lions’ bullpen retired six straight batters to close it out. DeNA starter Shota Imanaga struck out 12, but walked five and gave up seven hits, allowing five runs over seven innings.

Dragons 13, Eagles 3

At Nagoya Dome, Yuya Yanagi (6-2) gave up a run over seven innings, while Chunichi scored four runs off of each of Rakuten’s first three pitchers.

Atsushi Fujii singled and scored in the first and cracked a three-run home run in the second as the Dragons handed the Eagles their third loss in interleague, dropping them into third place.

Fighters 3, Tigers 2

At Koshien Stadium, Kohei Arihara (7-2) worked six innings, allowing two runs, and Taishi Ota‘s seventh-inning sacrifice fly snapped a 2-2 tie as Nippon Ham got past past Hanshin.

Arihara allowed four hits and two walks while striking out seven, while lefty Naoki Miyanishi struck out the side in the seventh. Naoya Ishikawa and closer Ryo Akiyoshi furnished two more scoreless innings, with Akiyoshi recording his 12th save.

Yuki Nishi (3-5) gave up three on eight hits and two walks over seven innings to take the loss.

News

Tigers to deactivate set-up man Johnson

Pierce Johnson, who leads the Central League with 19 holds and the Hanshin Tigers pitching staff with 28 games, will be deactivated on Saturday. Johnson, who was given the night off on Thursday in Chiba, went to the bullpen for about 10 minutes on Friday before returning to the clubhouse.

According to Sports Nippon, the club said, “We are concerned about fatigue from his heavy workload. He is being deactivated in order to be refreshed. He did not suffer an injury.” Actually, the word they use is that there was no “accident,” that being the word for an event causing damage to a body or some equipment.

The late great Wayne Graczyk used to rip into that usage the same way he’d talk about “timely errors” — run-scoring errors.

Central League

Giants 5, Dragons 1

At Nagoya Dome, Yomiuri’s Alex Guerrero hit a two-run home run against his former team the day after being reactivated, and Christopher Mercedes (4-2) threw seven scoreless innings. Chunichi’s Yuya Yanagi (3-2) allowed five runs in six innings.

Dayan Viciedo doubled in the Dragons’ only run in the eighth inning.

Carp 4, Tigers 0

At Koshien Stadium, Hiroshima’s Ryoma Nishikawa opened the scoring against Hanshin’s Randy Messenger (2-4) with a three-run, first-inning home run, while Kris Johnson (3-3) threw six shutout innings for the third straight game.

The win was the Carp’s sixth straight.

BayStars 11, Swallows 6

At Jingu Stadium, Toshiro Miyazaki went 3-for-4 with a walk and his fifth-inning RBI double off Ryota Igarashi broke a 3-3 tie before DeNA completely dismantled Yakult’s bullpen.

Neftali Soto hit his 12th homer for the BayStars, while Wladimir Balentien hit his ninth for the Swallows, off Edwin Escobar, and his first since missing two weeks due to upper body issues.

Pacific League

Hawks 2, Fighters 1

At Kumamoto, Kodai Senga (5-0) struck out nine en route to winning his fifth straight start. Nearly six years to the day after he won his first pro victory in the same hilltop park, Senga gave up the lead in the fourth, when Kensuke Kondo doubled and scored on a Wang Po-jung single.

Fighters starter Naoyuki Uwasawa (3-2) pitched out of a bases-loaded jam in the bottom of the fourth as the rain began pouring down at Fujisakidai Stadium.

After an hour rain delay, Senga returned to the mound in the top of the fifth, struck out the side, and his teammates took the lead thanks to a couple of mistakes by the Fighters defense.

Kondo in left tried to throw out Go Kamamoto at the plate on a one-out Kenta Imamiya single, but his throw got past catcher Yushi Shimizu. Uwasawa was on the spot backing up the play, but Shimizu took himself out of the play by also giving chase, leaving the lights on but no one at home. Imamiya took second on the error, went to third on a wild pitch and scored the go-ahead run on an Alfredo Despaigne sacrifice fly.

Eagles 6, Marines 4

At Zozo Marine Stadium, a throwing error by Lotte second baseman Shogo Nakamura opened the door to a four-run eighth inning, wasting a strong start from Mike Bolsinger.

Reliever Yuki Karakawa made good pitches after the error but surrendered an RBI double to Kazuya Fujita. The right-hander battled until he hung a 2-2 breaking ball to Hideto Asamura. The 2018 PL RBI leader tied it with his 10th home run. Hiroaki Shimauchi put a good swing on a decent 2-2 forkball and drove it out for his fourth home run.

Buffaloes 2, Lions 1

At Kyocera Dome, Kohei “K” Suzuki (1-1) struck out six over 5-2/3 innings, and Orix came from behind on two fourth-inning unearned runs against Seibu’s Tatsuya Imai. Four Buffaloes relievers held the Lions to a lone single the rest of the way.

Imae (4-4) allowed four hits, two walks, and a hit batsman, while striking out five over seven innings. Suzuki walked five and hit a batter, but allowed just three hits, including a first-inning RBI double to Osaka native Tomoya Mori.

Hirotoshi Masui recorded his NPB-best 13th save.

In other news

• Eagles right-hander Takayuki Kishi, out since hurting his left hamstring on Opening Day, is expected to return to action on May 24 against the Orix Buffaloes.
• Yoshinori Sato, who has spent much of his pro career “on the road to recovery” with the Yakult Swallows, is now reportedly on the road to recovery with Rakuten after touching 151 kph in two scoreless innings for the Eagles’ farm team.
• Lip service to dogma department Yakult rookie Munetaka Murakami on his team-leading 11th home run, a three-run shot: “We were trailing by three runs, so I was just trying to keep the rally going for the guys behind me (Yakult’s underpowered 7th, 8th and 9th spots).”