Roki Sasaki returned, but needed plenty of help from his friends, as Lotte handed Seibu an unwanted record, while Nippon Ham and Orix played power ball on a day that completed Central League sweeps week.
Looking ahead to Friday, Yusuke Nomura, who holds the NPB record for most starts without a relief appearance, will make his first start of the year for the Carp, while Carter Stewart Jr. will go for his fifth straight quality start and fifth straight winning decision for the Hawks.
Thursday’s games:
Fighters 7, Buffaloes 6: At Kitahiroshima Tax Payers Burden Field, there may have been a home run promotion in Hokkaido on Thursday, because they were everywhere, ending with Yuya Gunji‘s ninth-inning walk-off blast.
Both teams combined for seven homers, Gunji’s made necessary when Orix’s Ryoto Kita led off the Buffaloes’ seventh with his third career homer. Nippon Ham opened the scoring on Kotaro Kiyomiya‘s solo shot in the first. Kazunari Ishii homered to lead off the Fighters’ two-run second, but Orix took a 5-3 lead in the third. Kita singled in a run before Tomoya Mori and Leandro Cedeno homered back to back.
Kiyomiya doubled to lead off the Fighters’ third and scored on a sacrifice fly to make it a one-run game before Ariel Martinez‘s two-run homer in the fifth restored the Fighters’ lead.
Drew VerHagen started for the Fighters and allowed five runs in three innings. Another former Fighter, Kosei Yoshida allowed two runs in two innings of relief for the Buffaloes.
Tigers 9, Giants 2: At Koshien Stadium, Ukyo Maegawa drove in four runs, Seiya Kinami three, and Teruaki Sato scored three as Hanshin completed a three-game sweep of Yomiuri. Jeremy Beasley (5-1), pitching for the first time in two weeks, allowed two runs on three hits and a walk over six innings.
Hanshin took a first-inning lead against Shosei Togo (7-6) on a Koji Chikamoto leadoff single, two-out walks by Sato and Yusuke Oyama, and a two-run Maegawa single. A Shota Morishita leadoff walk in the third and singles by Oyama and Kinami made it 3-0 before Yomiuri even managed a base runner against Jeremy Beasley. The Giants got a run in the fifth set up by a Takumi Oshiro one-out single and a Yuta Izuguchi double.
The Tigers struck for three more runs after Togo retired the first two hitters in the fifth. Sato singled, Oyama walked, Maegawa singled in one and Kinami tripled in the other two. Luis Okoye batted for Togo and led off Yomiuri’s sixth with his first home run. Morishita singled in Chikamoto in the home half and scored as a result of singles from Sato and Maegawa. Sato put the icing on the cake for the Tigers with a solo homer in the eighth.
Marines 4, Lions 1: At Chiba Marine Stadium, pitching for the first time since June, Roki Sasaki allowed a run in five innings, although it might have been three without a couple of big plays from right fielder Kyota Fujiwara who also homered as Lotte beat Seibu for the 14th straight time this season without a loss.
Fujiwara ended Seibu’s scoreless first inning by cutting down a runner at the plate after Takuya Hiruma doubled off a high straight 155-kph fastball and tried to score when Takayoshi Yamamura ambushed a good low splitter for a two-out single.
Through three innings, Seibu submariner Kaito Yoza allowed just a first-inning walk until Yudai Fujioka led off the fourth with a single and Katsuya Kakunaka got a pitch in his wheel house that he pulled into the park’s right-field “home run lagoon.” Fujiwara helped save another run in the Lions’ fifth after Shuta Tonosaki was hit by a pitch to open the inning and stole second. With one out Fujiwara made a tricky catch on a low liner off the bat of new Lion Daiju Nomura, a batted ball that got Marines manager Masato Yoshii to check to see that the bullpen phone was working.
Tonosaki scored when Shohei Suzuki ripped a straight 159-kph fastball down the pipe for an RBI single. The Marines, however, erased that run with one swing when Fujiwara hit his second homer in the home half. Yoza walked the first two batters in the sixth, and was pulled so lefty Jefry Yan could face Kakunaka, who didn’t bat. Instead, Shingo Ishikawa doubled in a Gregory Polanco to make it 4-1.
Hawks 7, Eagles 0: At Tokyo Ugly Dome, six SoftBank pitchers combined on a bullpen day four-hit shutout of Rakuten. Tatsuru Yanagimachi tripled in Kensuke Kondo in the second off Masaru Fujii (7-2) . Doubles by Taisei Makihara and Ryoya Kurihara made it 2-0 in the third. Takuya Kai doubled in Kondo in the fourth and scored on a Makihara single to make it 4-0. Kai made it 7-0 in the sixth with a three-run homer, plating
Dragons 3, Swallows 2: At Nagoya Dome, Yakult’s Kojiro Yoshimura dodged a first-inning bullet when Chunichi loaded the bases with one out. He left the mound with one on and one out in the eighth and a 2-0 lead, but his bullpen allowed the inherited run to score. Naofumi Kizawa (3-2) surrendered a one-out single to Yuki Okabayashi in the ninth. Orlando Calixte tied it with a triple, scored the winning run on a Kaito Muramatsu‘s walk-off sacrifice fly as Chunichi completed a three-game sweep.
Tetsuto Yamada made it 1-0 Yakult with a second-inning homer. Munetaka Murakami singled in the fourth and made it 2-0 after a walk, a sacrifice and a Yamada sac fly.
Carp 2, BayStars 1: At New Hiroshima Citizens Stadium, Takayoshi Noma singled to open the eighth inning of a 1-1 tie, was sacrificed to second and scored on a two-out flare, before Ryoji Kuribayashi stranded two runners in the ninth to record his 29th save and complete Hiroshima’s three-game sweep of DeNA, a decision that moved the Carp into first place on winning percentage ahead of the Giants.
Hiroshima cashed in its first scoring opportunity when DeNA failed to get a two-out bases-loaded force at second base. The BayStars, who stranded a zillion runners on Wednesday, left the bases loaded in the first and fourth before tying it in the sixth against Daichi Osera on a Shugo Maki single, a Toshiro Miyazaki walk and a Mike Ford single.
