Repeat after me: Buffaloes are No. 1

Buffaloes 4, Eagles 3

At Sendai’s Rakuten Seimei Park, Orix’s Stefen Romero, who was released by Rakuten over the winter before re-signing with Oris, homered, Steven Moya and Shuhei Fukuda each drove in a run, and Ryoichi Adachi scored twice as the Buffaloes swept their series in Sendai to take over sole possession of first place in the Pacific League.

The Buffaloes have won nine straight decisions for the first time since 2011 as both teams went to a short starter-bullpen game. Yoshihisa Hirano, the Buffaloes’ seventh pitcher, struck out Rusney Castillo to begin a 1-2-3 ninth and record his eighth save.

Castillo had two hits in his second game with the Eagles. He was hurt in his April 23 season debut.

Starting pitchers

Pacific League

Lions vs Eagles: MetLife Dome 5:45 pm, 4:45 am EDT

Wataru Matsumoto (5-3, 2.98) vs Takayuki Kishi (3-4, 4.31)

Marines vs Hawks: Zozo Marine Stadium 5:45 pm, 4:45 am EDT

Kota Futaki (3-3, 3.54) vs Colin Rea (0-0, 2.57)

Buffaloes vs Fighters: Kyocera Dome (Osaka) 6 pm, 5 am EDT

Taisuke Yamaoka (3-4, 3.78) vs Drew VerHagen (1-5, 6.17)

Central League

Giants vs BayStars: Ishikawa Prefectural Stadium 6 pm, 5 am EDT

Angel Sanchez (4-4, 4.53) vs Koo Nakagawa (0-0, 5.24)

Dragons vs Tigers: Vantelin Dome (Nagoya) 5:45 pm, 4:45 am EDT

Yudai Ono (3-4, 3.49) vs Koyo Aoyagi (5-2, 2.17)

Carp vs Swallows: Mazda Stadium 6 pm, 5 am EDT

Daichi Osera (2-2, 3.05) vs Kazuto Taguchi (3-4, 3.12)

Active roster moves 6/21/2021

Deactivated players can be re-activated from 7/1

Central League

Activated

None

Dectivated

Pacific League

Activated

Dectivated