Thursday, the Hawks and Eagles wheeled out their elder statesmen starting pitchers, Shosei Togo was unable to repeat his marathon heroics from a week earlier, while
Thursday’s games
Tigers 5, Giants 2: At Tokyo Ugly Dome, Shosei Togo (10-3) was unable to protect a late lead. A week after he threw 149 pitches in a 2-1 complete-game win over Yakult, Togo surrendered three seventh-inning runs.
Hisayoshi Chono doubled and scored on a double play to put Yomiuri up 1-0 in the third against Hiroto Saiki (6-5), who allowed two runs over 7-1/3 innings.
A week ago, Togo allowed a run through eight innings on 127 pitches, before putting the tying and go-ahead runners on base with one out and with 141 pitches on his odometer but still holding off the Swallows off for the complete-game victory.
Togo took a shutout into the seventh inning on Thursday having thrown 108 pitches. He threw a straight 1-2 fastball belt high and away and Sheldon Neuse doubled off the top of the wall. Togo then tried to make a tough play on a high hopper to the mound but failed to get the lead runner, putting two on with no outs after his 116th pitch.
The Tigers tied it when first baseman Sho Nakata booted a pickoff throw. Back-to-back strikeouts got Togo to two outs and 124 pitches. Like Neuse, Chikamoto fell behind before getting a straight 2-2 fastball on the inside corner that he drilled well back into the right-field stands that caused manager Tatsunori Hara to pull the plug on his starter after 129 pitches.
Hayato Sakamoto made it a 3-2 game leading off the Giants’ eighth by launching Saiki’s 99th pitch for a home run. Saiki left with one out and two one, but Ren Kajiya struck out Nakata with the tying run on third before Hiroya Shimamoto got the third out to preserve the lead.
Cancer survivor Fumihito Haraguchi lessened the suspense with a pinch-hit two-run homer in the ninth, and Kyle Keller earned his first save of the season.
Marines 3, Buffaloes 1: At Chiba Marine Stadium, Atsuki Taneichi (9-4) struck out seven over seven scoreless innings, and Michael Brosseau hit his first Japan home run with a man on in the third to make it 2-0 off Jacob Waguespack (3-6). Takashi Ogino singled, stole second and scored on a Yudai Fujioka single in the fifth. Marines closer Naoya Masuda recorded his 25th save after surrendering a ninth-inning run.
Deniers 5, Dragons 1: At Yokohama Stadium, Haruhiro Hamaguchi (1-5) threw his first complete game in two years for DeNA. Shugo Maki doubled off rookie Rea Nakachi (1-3) to open DeNA’s second, and rookie Takuma Hayashi capped the rally with an RBI single. The Dragons prevented a shutout with a fifth-inning run, but Hamaguchi doubled with one out to and Maki’s two-out bases-loaded single completed the scoring.
DeNA-Dragons highlights
Swallows 13, Carp 3: At Jingu Stadium, Dillon Peters (5-3) allowed a run over seven innings, while Domingo Santana and Munetaka Murakami each hit three-run home runs for the Swallows. Murakami’s was his 22nd.
The Swallows took a six-run lead off lefty Hiroki Tokoda (9-3) with Murakami singling in two and Santana following with his 11th home run.
Fighters 6, Lions 5: At Kitahiroshima Taxpayers Burden Field, Takuya Hiruma, Seibu’s top draft signing from last autumn, tied it 3-3 with a three-run home run, the Lions’ second hit off Haruka Nemoto (1-0) in his season debut before the Fighters scored three unearned runs off Kaito Yoza (2-3) in the home half. David MacKinnon and Shuta Tonosaki reached to open the ninth and scored on sacrifice flies before Seibu ran out of outs and base runners against closer Seigi Tanaka, who earned his 18th save.
Hawks 11, Eagles 4: At Fukuoka Dome, 42-year-old Tsuyoshi Wada (6-4) allowed a run over 5-2/3 innings, while Masahiro Tanaka (6-7) proved he’d been prescient a week ago. Then, the 34-year-old denied he’d turned a corner after allowing a run over eight innings, and sure enough, he surrendered six runs on seven hits, two walks, and a hit batsman over 5-1/3 innings.
Takuya Kai took Tanaka deep to lead off the third, before Masaki Mimori created a second run in the inning. He singled, stole second, went to third on a groundout and scored on a Yuki Yanagita sac fly. Kenta Imamiya doubled in the fifth and Mimori tripled him home before scoring again on a sac fly.
Kensuke Kondo extended his career-high home run total with his 17th, leading off the sixth, and Imamiya chased Tanaka with a two-out RBI single.
