Kensuke Kondo hit his first homer since June 29, Carter Stewart Jr. kept one streak alive but failed to extend another on a night of streaks, in which one manager blamed his players for their poor approach and another coach shouldered the blame himself.
Friday’s games:
Marines 3, Buffaloes 2: At Osaka UFO Dome, Tatsuya Tamura hit a two-run second-inning double off a fat fastball from Hiroya Miyagi (3-7), and scored on a Hiromi Oka single. Ayumu Ishikawa (3-0) worked five scoreless innings, before Orix scored twice against Lotte’s bullpen on RBI singles by Leandro Cedeno and Yutaro Sugimoto. Miyagi allowed three runs on seven hits, two walks and a hit batsman. Lotte’s Rikuto Yokoyama recorded his third save.
The three-time defending PL champion Buffaloes lost 10 straight decisions for the first time since 2012, having gone 0-10-1 in their last 11 games.
“I’m the reason we lost,” Miyagi said.
Carp 1, Dragons 0: At New Hiroshima Citizens Stadium, Yusuke Nomura extended his Japan record for most starts by a pitcher without a relief appearance, going five scoreless innings, and four relievers completed the seven hit, four-walk shutout as Chunichi stranded 10 runners.
“We didn’t do what we needed to do at the plate with runners in scoring position,” Dragons batting coach Kazuhiro Wada said. “Perhaps I needed to be clearer about my instructions.”
Takayoshi Noma doubled in the sixth and scored on a Kaito Kozono single off Shinnosuke Ogasawara (4-8).
Eagles 3, Lions 2: At the domed stadium formerly known as “Prince,” Rakuten rookie Daisuke Nakajima’s first career home run, a two-run shot in the fifth off Tatsuya Imai (4-7), brought the Eagles from behind to make a winner out of Seiryu Uchi (5-7), who went five.
A pair of new Lions brought Seibu from behind. Daiju Nomura tied it in the third with his second home run, and Anthony Garcia doubled in Takuya Hiruma with the go-ahead run in the fourth. Four Eagles relievers surrendered three base runners over the final four innings with Takahiro Norimoto earning his 23rd save.
“Our approach against fastballs is weak,” Seibu GM and interim manager Hisanobu Watanabe said. “We need to try and take those up the middle.”
Swallows 4, Giants 2: At Tokyo Ugly Dome, Yasunobu Okugawa (3-1) allowed two hits but no walks over six innings, and Yuhei Nakamura squeezed home Kengo Ota in the second off Yuji Akahoshi (0-7) in an inning set up by a Jose Osuna leadoff single. Ota tripled in Haruki Nishikawa and Osuna to make it 3-0 in the sixth.
Elvin Rodriguez worked a scoreless seventh, but Tomoya Hoshi walked two of the three batters he faced in the eighth, and both scored on a Naoki Yoshikawa single. Yakult got one run back in the ninth on two singles and an error with Nishikawa singling home Nakamura. Yakult’s Reiji Kozawa worked a 1-2-3 ninth against Kazuma Okamoto, Coco Montes and Luis Okoye to earn his first career save, about which he said, “I wasn’t especially thinking about it.”
“Today was the best Okugawa has been since he came back,” Swallows manager Shingo Takatsu said. “He was locating his fastball exactly where he wanted it.”
Tigers 4, BayStars 2: At Yokohama Stadium, Shoki Murakami (5-7) allowed two runs over 7-1/3 innings to earn the win after Hanshin came from behind against DeNA for its eighth straight win and moved into second place.
Tyler Austin, playing for the first time since a batted ball hit him in the face in the second All-Star game, walked to lead off DeNA’s second, when the BayStars scored on two walks, a hit batsman and a sac fly. The Tigers took a 4-1 lead in the sixth. Koji Chikamoto was hit by an Andre Jackson pitch and sacrificed to second. Shota Morishita singled him home and scored after singles by Teruaki Sato and Yusuke Oyama. A two-out Seiya Kinami walk loaded the bases and Seishiro Sakamoto singled in two. The BayStars got a run back in the eighth on a Toshiro Miyazaki pinch-hit RBI single. Suguru Iwazaki worked a 1-2-3 ninth for his 16th save.
Jackson (4-7) has now allowed four runs in each of his last three starts, while the BayStars have lost nine straight.
Hawks 6, Fighters 4: At Fukuoka “Your company’s name can go here” Dome, Carter Stewart Jr. failed to collect his fifth straight quality start, but did win his fifth straight decision, allowing two runs over five innings to improve to 6-2.
It took SoftBank just minutes to get a 3-0 lead. Stewart threw seven pitches in the first inning, Kenta Imamiya doubled to lead off the home half and scored when Hotaka Yamakawa singled off Takayuki Kato’s 16th pitch. Four pitches later, Kensuke Kondo had his fourth home run against his former team this season, and his 14th of the year, and then hit his 15th in the third for good measure.
Yuya Gunji led off Nippon Ham’s fourth with his 10th home run. Takuya Kai, who hit a three-run homer the night before against Rakuten at Tokyo Dome, hit a solo shot in the fourth to make it 5-1. The Fighters loaded the bases in the fifth on singles by Daigo Kawakamibata and Shun Mizutani and a walk by Kotaro Kiyomiya. Gunji smoked a ball to the track in center but was held to a sacrifice fly on a good catch by rookie Riku Ogata. The sudden loss of command and the quality of swings on his pitches appear to have caused Hawks manager Hiroki Kokubo to tell Stewart this wasn’t his night.
SoftBank’s Darwinzon Hernandez surrendered two runs in the eighth on a walk and doubles from Chusei Mannami and Franmil Reyes.
