A Tigers rookie made his starting debut at Koshien and was extremely sharp, the Fighters’ home run power made the difference–again–after Rakuten got a terrific scoreless start from José Ureña, while Kensuke Kondo decided a pitchers’ duel in Fukuoka.
Thursday’s games
Tigers 2, Swallows 0, 7 innings rain: Starting in the third game of his career, Hanshin’s 21-year-old rookie Hidetoshi Ibaraki pitched out of a couple of jams in his season debut to work six innings for his first career win. Hanshin’s Masato Morishita put a good swing on a decent curve from Yasunobu Okugawa curve for his fourth homer of the season to open the fourth inning. Teruaki Sato followed with a double and Yusuke Oyama completed a good at-bat with an RBI single. The defending Central League champs win their season’s first series at Koshien.
Hawks 2, Lions 0: Ryosuke Otsu allowed three runners to reach over seven innings but all three were erased on the bases, as he and two relievers combined on a one-hit shutout. Kensuke Kondo’s fourth homer, a two-run seventh-inning shot off Seibu reliever Emmanuel Ramirez decided the pitching duel after six tough but scoreless innings from lefty Shinya Sugai.
Giants Carp, Rained out: Rain in Hiroshima prevented us from seeing the second-half of the Giants’ former Eagles ace tandem, Takahiro Norimoto, follow Masahiro Tanaka‘s effort on Wednesday.
Fighters 4, Eagles 2: Rakuten took a first-inning lead on a sacrifice fly after loading the bases with no outs against lefty Takayuki Kato. First-year Eagles import José Ureña struck out five through five innings while allowing two singles and no walks, and his exit opened the door for Nippon Ham. Two-way hopeful Kota Yazawa doubled, Tatsuki Mizuno singled, and Taiki Narama singled in one run. Kotaro Kiyomiya followed with the Fighters’ 24th home run.
Kato again loaded the bases with no outs in the bottom of the sixth. Taisho Tamai needed just 11 pitches to get a force at the plate and an inning-ending double play. Fighters closer Taisei Yanagawa worked around a leadoff triple in the ninth to record his third straight save.
Buffaloes 2, Marines 1, 10 innings: Both teams loaded the bases once, and scored just one run for their trouble. With two outs in the third, Ryo Ota singled home Tomoya Noguchi, while Lotte right-fielder Kyota Fujiwara gunned down Yuma Mune trying to score from second. The Marines tied it in the sixth. After loading the bases with no outs, Hiroya Miyagi struck out the next two batters but left the game with discomfort. Soichiro Yamazaki walked Toshiya Sato, but got pinch-hitter Gregory Polanco to fly out. Mune, who reached base four times, doubled to open the 10th and scored from third on Ryoma Nishikawa‘s one-out sayonara single.
