On Sunday, Japan’s two league’s leaders can be forgiven for looking over their shoulders, as three of the teams chasing the top spot completed three-game sweeps.
Let’s get to the games shall we?
Sunday’s games
BayStars 3, Carp 0: At Yokohama Stadium, DeNA’s Taishi Kusumoto opened the scoring with a first-inning homer, pitcher Masaya Kyoyama (2-1) hit his first career homer in the second and Shugo Maki homered for the third straight game, reaching 20 in each of his first two pro seasons.
Kyoyama allowed six hits and hit a batter while striking out six over 6-1/3 innings. Third baseman Toshiro Miyazaki didn’t homer for the third straight game but did have two hits and make a super catch of a foul fly to help defuse a seventh-inning rally when Hiroshima left the bases loaded.
Hiromu Ise finished the seventh for Kyoyama, and Edwin Escobar and Yasuaki Yamasaki closed it out with Yamasaki getting his 29th save.
DeNA’s win was their season-high sixth straight and extended their team-record home winning streak to 17 as they moved within four games of the Swallows.
Tigers 6, Giants 1: At Tokyo Dome, Hanshin won its fourth straight by a convincing margin to move within nine games of first place. Hiroto Saiki (3-1) who returned from Tommy John this year, struck out seven over 6-1/3 innings while allowing one run on Kazuma Okamoto’s seventh-inning home run, his 24th.
Matt Shoemaker (4-8) allowed three runs, two earned, in 4-2/3 innings. Takumu Nakano reached base five times and scored three. Teruaki Sato drove him in with a first-inning single and Kento Itohara’s sac fly made it 2-0. Hanshin led 4-0 before Saiki gave up Okamoto’s homer.
Dragons 5, Swallows 2: At Nagoya Dome, 19-year-old rookie Kotaro Ueda struck out seven over five scoreless innings but got no decision after third baseman Toshiki Abe made a two-run throwing error in the seventh inning to tie it.
Swallows starter Reiji Kozawa worked five innings and surrendered the lead on back-to-back RBI doubles by Ryosuke Hirata and Yuki Okabayashi. Shota Ono singled and walked twice to set up the go-ahead run in the bottom of the seventh off Naofumi Kizawa (6-3) on a single by rookie Ryuku Tsuchida.
Shunta Goto tripled in two in the eighth before Raidel Martinez earned his 27th save.
New Yakult import Patrick Kivlehan, who had his first hit in Japan on Saturday, went 3-for-4.
Lions 3, Buffaloes 1: At Seibu Dome, Dietrich Enns (8-6) struck out four without a walk as he allowed a run over six innings. Hotaka Yamakawa singled in one run in a two-run first off rookie Ren Mukunoki (2-1), Orix’s top draft pick last autumn. Yoshinobu Mizukami, Burch Smith and Tatsushi Masuda finished up with Masuda getting his 25th save to keep the Lions a half-game ahead of the Hawks.
Hawks 5, Fighters 1: At Fukuoka Dome, Tsuyoshi Wada (4-4) allowed a run over five innings, and SoftBank hit four home runs, two by Isami Nomura, and one each by Alfredo Despaigne and Yuki Yanagita. Nippon Ham’s Takayuki Kato (5-5) allowed four runs, three earned, over seven innings.
Eagles 1, Marines 0: At Miyagi Stadium, Shoma Fujihira (1-0) struck out seven while allowing one hit over 5-1/3 innings, four reliever held Lotte to a walk the rest of the way, and Hiroto Kobukata doubled in Luis Okoye in the fifth off Kazuya Ojima (2-9).
Active roster moves 8/21/2022
Deactivated players can be re-activated from 8/31
Central League
Activated
| Giants | P | 12 | Rubby De La Rosa |
| Giants | IF | 32 | Taishi Hirooka |
| Dragons | P | 67 | Kotaro Ueda |
Dectivated
| Giants | P | 91 | Kenshin Hotta |
| Giants | OF | 51 | Takumaru Yaoita |
Pacific League
Activated
| Buffaloes | P | 15 | Ren Mukunoki |
| Hawks | P | 38 | Yuito Mori |
| Hawks | IF | 27 | Yurisbel Gracial |
| Hawks | IF | 33 | Shu Masuda |
| Fighters | OF | 36 | Fumikazu Kimura |
Dectivated
| Buffaloes | OF | 99 | Yutaro Sugimoto |
| Hawks | P | 25 | Seigi Tanaka |
| Hawks | IF | 23 | Ukyo Shuto |
| Hawks | IF | 36 | Taisei Makihara |
| Fighters | IF | 24 | Yuki Nomura |
