A night after they dismantled the Seibu Lions, the Hawks’ Tatsuru Yanagimachi and Hotaka Yamakawa were back home doing it to Lotte with some help from Kohei Arihara. SoftBank, which has been the leader in turning developmental contract signings into top talent, got some more help from that department in the form of a pair of Buffaloes.
Meanwhile, there was an update on Roki Sasaki‘s situation.
Friday’s games
Hawks 4, Marines 0: At Kitahiroshima Taxpayers Burden Field, Kohei Arihara (11-5) missed a Maddux by three pitches, throwing a four-hit, one-walk shutout, while Tatsuru Yanagimachi hit a two-run home run for the second straight night, giving the Hawks a 2-0 first-inning lead.
Hotaka Yamakawa, who had a hat-trick of two-run homers against the Lions on Thursday, settled for a solo shot, but saw his streak of consecutive multi-hit games end at seven. His eighth home run in eight games gives him 27 on the season.
Buffaloes 5, Fighters 1: At Osaka UFO Dome, Kaito Saiki, the second player signed in the 2022 developmental draft, allowed a run in five innings, but left with the game tied. The Buffaloes took the lead in a three-run seventh on a one-out Kotaro Kurebayashi double, a Masahiro Nishino single, a walk and an RBI single from Kosei Osato, the Buffs’ third pick in the 2021 D draft. Taishi Hirooka, who Orix got in exchange for Kohei “K” Suzuki, singled in two more runs to more or less ice this one.
The Fighters’ loss leaves them 12 games back of the Hawks in second place.
Dragons 2, Tigers 1: At Nagoya Dome, a gang of Chunichi relievers stepped in when Shinnosuke Ogasawara was unable to return to the mound in the second inning. Shuhei Takahashi went 2-for-3, and scored the tying run on a fifth-inning Yohei Oshima pinch-hit double off Jeremy Beasley (6-2). Journeyman Seiji Kawagoe hit his first home run since joining the Dragons from Seibu last season to break the tie in the sixth.
Daisuke Sobue, Sho Iwasaki and Yuki Hashimoto (3-1) each worked two innings of relief before 1-2-3 innings from Tatsuya Shimizu and Raidel Martinez put this one to bed.
Sasaki appears ready for his next start
Lotte’s Roki Sasaki, who was knocked out of his start on Thursday when a comebacker tagged him on the left ankle, traveled to Fukuoka with the team practiced, and was seen jogging before the game.
“I think he’ll definitely be ready to make his next start after six or seven days rest,” Marines manager Masato Yoshii said.
