Carter Stewart Jr. had his best game as a pro, Atsuki Taneichi threw a 96-pitch complete game, Nippon Ham’s ace got hit, but the Fighters came back against tough rookie Natsuki Takeuchi, while in Nagoya, a veteran pitching-dual made Nagoya Dome party like it was 2020, minus the COVID…
Sunday’s games:
Hawks 5, Eagles 2: At Fukuoka “Your company’s name can go here” Dome, Carter Stewart Jr. (7-2) won his sixth straight decision, striking out eight while walking two and allowing two singles over seven scoreless innings. Hotaka Yamakawa hit his 22nd home run, his third in three games, a two-run shot off Ryota Takinaka (1-4) in the fourth inning. Yamakawa doubled in the Hawks’ two-run sixth, too.
Fighters 8, Lions 7: At Kitahiroshima Taxpayers Burden Field, the Lions, who on Saturday fell 40 games below .500, took a 3-1 third-inning lead off Fighters ace Hiromi Ito. Rookie lefty Natsuki Takeuchi (7-3) took that lead into the bottom of the fourth, but surrendered the lead on Franmil Reyes‘ two-run game-tying homer, his ninth. Shun Mizutani, who doubled and scored in the first, reached on his third hit and scored in the Fighters’ three-run fifth, capped by a two-run jack from Kotaro Kiyomiya, his eighth. Kiyomiya singled in two including Mizutani in the sixth.
Ito (9-3) allowed five runs, four earned in seven innings, and Patrick Murphy surrendered a pair of unearned runs in the eighth
Marines 6, Buffaloes 1: Chiba Marine Stadium, Atsuki Taneichi (7-5) struck out six in a 96-pitch two-hitter. Yudai Fujioka hit a two-run first-inning homer. Gregory Polanco, who reached base three times, singled and scored to complete the rally on a triple by July’s PL hitter of the month, Akito Takabe. Polanco walked and scored on a third-inning Neftali Soto triple, and Takabe made it 5-0 with a sacrifice fly. Leandro Cedeno drove in the Bufffaloes’ only run with a fifth-inning sacrifice fly.
Swallows 5, BayStars 4: At Yokohama Stadium, Hideki Nagaoka‘s two-run homer, his sixth of the year and second of the game, broke a 3-3 seventh-inning tie as Yakult avoided being swept in Yokohama. Nagaoka hit a first-inning solo homer in the first off Anthony Kay and singled in a run in the Swallows’ two-run third. DeNA tied it in the fourth on Toshiro Miyazaki‘s ninth homer, a three-run shot off Yoshinobu Okugawa. Miyazaki’s eighth-inning RBI single made it a 1-0 game, but the game ended with the potential tying run in scoring position as Yakult avoided a three-game sweep.
Giants 3, Dragons 1: At Nagoya Dome, it was shades of 2020, the year Yudai Ono (1-4) was the Sawamura Award winner and the Tomoyuki Sugano won more than 10 games as Sugano (11-2) outdueled the Dragons lefty.
Sugano wasn’t vintage, but one doesn’t have to be against Chunichi. He allowed a run on nine hits while striking out three over 8-1/3 innings. Kazuma Okamoto doubled and scored on a second-inning Hayato Sakamoto double. Makoto Kadowaki tripled and scored on a fifth-inning Yoshihiro Maru single. Hisayoshi Chono‘s pinch-hit infield single drove in a ninth-inning insurance run and Taisei Ota struck out two batters to strand the tying runs on base for his 19th save.
Tigers 4, Carp 0: At Osaka UFO Dome, Haruto Takahashi (1-0) struck out seven over five innings, Yusuke Oyama homered and doubled and drove in two runs, and Ukyo Maegawa also hit a solo homer for the Tigers, who avoided a three-game sweep.
