Friday’s games
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Giants tie up title
The Yomiuri Giants got exactly what they needed to clinch their second straight pennant on Friday after the second-place Tigers tied. Knowing Hanshin had been held to a 3-3 tie in Yokohama. The Giants began celebrating as soon as they held the Yakult Swallows scoreless in the top of the 10th at Tokyo Dome in their own 3-3 tie.
The Swallows tied it 3-3 in the eighth, and Scott McGough allowed the Giants to load the bases in the bottom of the ninth but kept them from scoring, which was pretty much the story of the game as both team had big chances to score but failed at the last hurdle.
Giants manager Tatsunori Hara, whose team remained mired in a five-game losing streak and who barely scraped out a tie, said the game was a fitting pennant clincher in a season that only barely happened and said he was proud of the effort baseball had made to get it in.
The Swallows tied it in the fifth but failed to break the game open, stranding multiple runners in scoring position in the fifth and seventh.
The Giants, turned away in the fourth by starter Hiroaki Saiuchi, took the lead in the sixth when Yoshihiro Maru doubled and scored on a Takumi Oshiro single but left the bases loaded against rookie Naruki Terashima.
Kazuma Okamoto put some juice with a one-handed swing on a low straight fastball from Saiuchi in the bottom of the third to raise his league-leading home run total to 29 and make it a 2-1 game after Taishi Hirooka homered off Nobutaka Imamura in the top of the third.
Hirooka singled in the fifth, stole second and scored the tying run on singles by 19-year-old rookie Hideki Nagaoka and Yasutaka Shiomi.
Giants captain Hayato Sakamoto, their 31-year-old shortstop, moved within four hits of 2,000 in his career. Giants flame thrower Thyago Vieira hit 101 mph on the gun in the Swallows’ scoreless 10th.
BayStars tackle Tigers
Jose Lopez tied it in the ninth with a two-run home run off Tigers closer and fellow Venezuelan Robert Suarez. Lopez’s homer was his 10th of the season and his 999th hit since coming to Japan in 2013 with the Giants. With one more hit he will join Hideki Matsui and former Seattle Mariners teammate Ichiro Suzuki as third player with 1,000 hits in both MLB and NPB.
Joe Gunkel started for the Tigers and allowed a run over six innings and got the Tigers first-run started with a third-inning leadoff single. Jefry Marte went 2-for-4 with a walk, two doubles and an RBI, while Gunkel sacrificed a runner to contribute to the Tigers’ third run. Jon Edwards pitched a scoreless inning of relief for the visitors.
Carp blow up Dragons
Rookie leadoff man Minoru Omori and No. 2 hitter Kosuke Tanaka each drove in four runs and Seiya Suzuki came off the bench to deliver a game-tying seventh-inning single before hitting a two-run homer in the eighth as the Hiroshima Carp flayed the Chunichi Dragons in a 17-3 whipping at Nagoya Dome.
Rookie catcher Ariel Martinez marked his first-team return after a 10-week injury layoff by coming off the bench to bat for Cuban compatriot Yariel Rodriguez and delivered tie-breaking pinch-hit double in the fifth. Rodriguez allowed two unearned runs over five innings.
More zeros for Higashihama
Nao Higashihama (9-1) threw eight scoreless innings and Yuito Mori closed it out for his 30th save after Takeya Nakamura’s two-run ninth inning homer made it a one-run game as the SoftBank Hawks held off the Seibu Lions at MetLife Dome 4-3.
Higashihama, the Hawks’ Opening Day starter has now thrown 24 consecutive scoreless innings, and has allowed two runs over his last 39-2/3 innings. Ukyo Shuto extended his record streak of consecutive games with a stolen base to 13.
The Lions’ loss left them in third place, one game out of the second and final Pacific League playoff spot and only half a game ahead of the fourth-place Rakuten Eagles.
Eagles go back to basics with Matsui
Former closer Yuki Matsui struck out two of the three batters he faced in the ninth to preserve a 2-1 Rakuten Eagles win over the Lotte Marines at Chiba’s Zozo Marine Stadium in his first save of the season after Takayuki Kishi (6-0) allowed a run over eight innings.
Kishi struck out 10 without issuing a walk while allowing four hits. Hideto Asamura drew a leadoff walk in the eighth and scored the go-ahead run on a wild pitch by Hirokazu Sawamura (0-2). Matsui’s return to the starting rotation was a key part of the Eagles plans this season, but he moved to middle relief after making 10 starts.
Yamaoka goes distance
Orix Buffaloes Opening Day starter Taisuke Yamaoka (4-5) allowed two runs over the distance while striking out eight to outduel Nick Martinez (2-7) in a 3-2 win over the Nippon Ham Fighters at Sapporo Dome. Steven Moya halved the Fighters’ 2-0 lead in the fourth with an RBI double.
Active roster moves 10/30/2020
Deactivated players can be re-activated from 11/9
Central League
Activated
| BayStars | OF | 52 | Seiya Hosokawa |
| Tigers | P | 49 | Joe Gunkel |
| Dragons | C | 57 | Ariel Martinez |
Dectivated
| BayStars | OF | 37 | Taishi Kusumoto |
Pacific League
Activated
| Lions | P | 36 | Sho Ito |
| Lions | OF | 53 | Aito Takeda |
| Hawks | OF | 32 | Tatsuru Yanagimachi |
| Eagles | P | 15 | Jon Thomas Chargois |
| Eagles | P | 20 | Tomohiro Anraku |
| Fighters | C | 22 | Shinya Tsuruoka |
Dectivated
| Lions | P | 57 | Tsubasa Kokuba |
| Lions | OF | 72 | Seiji Kawagoe |
| Hawks | P | 37 | Matt Moore |
| Eagles | P | 52 | Taisei Tsurusaki |
| Eagles | OF | 46 | Ko Shimozuru |
| Fighters | IF | 44 | Christian Villanueva |
Starting pitchers for Oct. 31, 2020
Pacific League
Fighters vs Buffaloes: Sapporo Dome 2 pm, 1 am EDT
Ryusei Kawano (2-4, 5.59) vs Andrew Albers (4-7, 3.55)
Lions vs Hawks: MetLife Dome 2 pm, 1 am EDT
Ken Togame (1-1, 6.16) vs Shuta Ishikawa (9-3, 2.54)
Marines vs Eagles: Zozo Marine Stadium 2 pm, 1 am EDT
Kota Futaki (7-3, 3.50) vs Ryota Ishibashi (1-5, 6.05)
Central League
Giants vs Swallows: Tokyo Dome 2 pm, 1 am EDT
Tomoyuki Sugano (13-2, 2.05) vs Yasuhiro Ogawa (10-6, 4.29)
BayStars vs Tigers: Yokohama Stadium 2 pm, 1 am EDT
Shoichi Ino (6-6, 3.56) vs Takumi Akiyama (9-3, 3.00)
Dragons vs Carp: Nagoya Dome 2 pm, 1 am EDT
Takahiro Matsuba (3-7, 4.24) vs Yuta Nakamura (3-3, 2.08)
