Manabu Mima was as good as he ever is and had lots of luck go his way, but it wasn’t enough. A leadoff walk in the ninth inning ruined the Eagles’ right-hander’s bid for a perfect game. A flare single into left spoiled his bid for a no-hitter, and a tough-but playable drive to the warning track was not caught and there went the shutout.
But it was a marvelous game, and Eagles manager Yosuke Hirabayashi summed it up well.
“The energy and atmosphere in the ballpark was tremendous,” Hirabayashi said. “He created that. I wasn’t taking him out (after runners got on).”
As it was, Mima threw the Eagles’ first complete-game victory of the season.
Pacific League
Eagles 5, Hawks 1
At Rakuten Seimei Miyagi Park, Manabu Mima (6-3) was throwing darts with his fastballs, keeping his sliders away from barrels, tempting hitters with changeups and surprising them with curves in the heart of the zone.
He made mistakes, and when the Hawks, who have now lost five straight for the first time since 2016, did square the ball up, they hit bullets to Eagles fielders.
Hawks skipper Kimiyasu Kudo is once again without the best two-thirds of his outfield now that Yurisbel Gracial is off for international duty with Cuba, and center fielder Yuki Yanagita continues his rehab. He was not a happy camper afterward.
“It’s the bench’s job to advise the players, tell them what pitches to look for, which ones to ignore, tell them which ones they absolutely have to hit,” he said. “Tomorrow we (coaches) will do a better job.”
Sarcasm is fairly uncommon among Japanese, but Kudo is proof that it does exist.
The game highlights are HERE.
Fighters 5, Marines 3
At Sapporo Dome, Nippon Ham’s Takayuki Kato was asked to go through the Lotte batting order twice, did it expertly and improved to 2-2 as the bullpen made a four-run lead stand up against Lotte. The Fighters’ fourth-straight win moved them to within three games of the league-leading Hawks.
Fighters cleanup hitter Sho Nakata marked his seventh-straight season with 20-plus home runs.
The game highlights are HERE.
Lions 5, Buffaloes 4, 11 innings
At MetLife Dome, Takeya Nakamura became the 20th member of Japan’s 400-home run club with a walk-off shot that lifted Seibu over Orix after Brandon Dickson failed to pick up his eighth save thanks to a three-run, game-tying Yuji Kaneko ninth-inning home run.
The game highlights are HERE.
Central League
Carp 7, Giants 6
At Mazda Stadium, Hiroshima bounced back from an early five-run deficit and capped a three-run eighth with Tsubasa Aizwawa’s two-run off Scott Mathieson (1-1).
The Carp’s Kyle Regnault (5-2) surrendered Hayato Sakamoto’s 29th home run in the top of the eighth, but ended up with the win.
BayStars 3, Dragons 2
At Yokohama Stadium, DeNA manager Alex Ramirez’s maligned batting order teed off on Yuya Yanagi (9-3) in the first inning, as slugging No. 2 hitter Yoshitomo Tsutsugo doubled, Neftali Soto walked and Jose Lopez homered in the BayStars win over Chunichi.
The loss snapped the Dragons’ eight-game win streak.
