A typhoon crossing Japan’s largest island, Honshu, washed out Tuesday’s high school baseball championships at Koshien Stadium as well as forcing teams to stay away from pro games that were to be held indoors in Osaka and Nagoya.
The Hanshin Tigers went into their game in Hiroshima having won 10 straight for the first time since 2007 with a chance their magic number will “light up.”
Tuesday’s games
Carp 7, Tigers 6: At New Hiroshima Citizens Stadium, Hiroshima closer Takuya Yasaki pulled this one out of the fire. Two days after surrendering back-to-back home runs in Nagoya to take the loss in extra-innings, the first two batters again reached base in the ninth against Yasaki, but a double play allowed him to survive Takumu Nakano‘s RBI single and still record his
Rookie Shota Morishita homered with Koji Chikamoto on in the first. Kaito Kozono tied it with a two-run homer in the bottom of the first. After both starting pitchers caught a tail-end-of-the-order breather in the second, Chikamoto singled with one out in the third, Takumu Nakano doubled and Morishita doubled in both of them before scoring himself.
The Carp narrowed the gap to a run in the fifth on an RBI double from Ryoma Nishikawa, who scored on Tsubasa Aizawa‘s pinch-hit single off Junya Nishi, who struck out Shogo Sakakura with the tying run at third to end the inning and roared coming off the mound.
The Tigers’ reprieve, however, was brief. Lefty Nik Turley (7-1), Hiroshima’s third pitcher, worked a 1-2-3 sixth, and Matt Davidson tied it, leading off the Carp’s sixth with his 12th homer, off reliever Kosuke Baba (2-1), who issued back-to-back one-out walks. After a rain delay, Hiroya Shimamoto inherited the two-on one-out predicament and surrendered two-out RBI singles to Kaizono and Nishikawa as Hiroshima took a two-run lead.
The loss denied the Tigers their first 11-game win streak since 1982.
Deniers 9, Swallows 3: At Jingu Stadium, DeNA opened with three homers, from Toshiro Miyazaki in the first, Hikaru Ito in the second, and Keita Sano in the third, when Masayuki Kuwahara followed with a double and scored on a Miyazaki single off side-armer Reiji Kozawa (5-3). Ito doubled in Taiki Sekine in the fourth and scored on a Sano single to make it 6-0. Miyazaki singled to open the fifth and Neftali Soto hit a two-run homer. Shugo Maki hit a ninth-inning solo shot for DeNA.
Swallows-DeNA highlights
Fighters 6, Marines 5: At Kitahiroshima Taxpayer’s Burden Field, Ariel Martinez doubled in a run in the first off Lotte’s Yuji Nishino (8-3). After the Marines answered with two second-inning runs against Takayuki Kato (6-8), Yuki James Nomura doubled and scored the tying run on a Gosuke Kato single. Kyota Fujiwara homered to open the fifth to give the Marines a 3-2 lead.
But that just started the dominos falling. Go Matsumoto doubled to open the Fighters’ fifth and scored the tying run on a Chusei Mannami single. Daigo Kamikawabata singled in two to make it 5-3.
Marines captain Shogo Nakamura singled in Fujiwara to make it a one-run game in the seventh off Bryan Rodriguez, but Martinez doubled and scored in the bottom of the inning on a Mannami single, allowing closer Seigi Tanaka to surrender Katsuya Kakunaka‘s ninth-inning pinch-hit homer and still secure his 20th save.
Eagles 5, Lions 3: At Seibu Half Dome, Yuya Ogo brought Rakuten from behind in the ninth inning when the Eagles were down to their last strike against Seibu closer Tatsushi Masuda (4-3) with a two-run triple. With the outfield playing shallow to prevent the go-ahead run from scoring on a single, Ogo drove it to the track in center. Ogo scored an insurance run, and Yuki Matsui sealed the win with his 26th save.
Yukiya Ito tripled and opened the scoring in the second off Dietrich Enns, who was pitching for the first time in over three weeks. Eagles lefty Takahisa Hayakawa walked Shuta Tonosaki to open the first, and he tied on catcher Yuto Koga‘s double.
The Eagles took the lead against Katsunori Hirai in the eighth on a walk and three balls that stayed in the infield, two groundouts, and Daichi Suzuki‘s RBI infield single. The Lions came from behind in the home half on doubles by Mark Payton, Shuta Tonosaki and Takeya Nakamura.
