The Lions swept a series, the Lions swept a series. The Fighters did the same getting their second straight win in a game started by Roki Sasaki, while two CL teams avoided being swept and Hiroshima ended its drama-packed top-of-the-table clash with Yomiuri in dramatic fashion.

Thursday’s games

Carp 2, Giants 1, 10 innings: At Tokyo Ugly Dome, Masaya Yano said after the game he’d never hit a 154-kph fastball in his life before, but Kyle Keller (0-2) gave him five whacks at heaters at the top of the zone or above and after two swings and misses and two fouls, Yano lined the fifth one for a two-out 10th-inning RBI single that put Hiroshima ahead after the Carp spoiled Shosei Togo‘s shutout bid in the ninth inning.

Shogo Asano drove in Yomiuri’s first run for the second straight game, breaking a scoreless tie with the Giants’ third straight one-out sixth-inning single off Makoto Aduwa. Kaito Kozono tied it in the ninth and chased Togo with Hiroshima’s fifth hit of the game, a one-out RBI single that plated a pinch-runner after Takayoshi Noma led off with a single. Taisei Ota stranded two runners, and the Giants left two on in the bottom of the inning.

Ryosuke Kikuchi drew a one-out walk in the 10th and after a pinch-hit double from Shogo Akiyama to set the table for Yano, who drove in the go-ahead run with two outs.

Carp closer Ryoji Kuribayashi gave us a taste of his typical danger in the bottom of the inning, when Takumi Oshiro hit a rope toward the corner to open the inning. Although a fairly limited outfielder, Shota Suekane tracked it down and made a leaping catch to rob Oshiro of a double. A lineout and a strikeout ended it as Kuribayashi recorded his 33rd save.