The Lions swept a series, the Lions swept a series. The Fighters did the same getting their second straight win in a game started by Roki Sasaki, while two CL teams avoided being swept and Hiroshima ended its drama-packed top-of-the-table clash with Yomiuri in dramatic fashion.
Thursday’s games
Carp 2, Giants 1, 10 innings: At Tokyo Ugly Dome, Masaya Yano said after the game he’d never hit a 154-kph fastball in his life before, but Kyle Keller (0-2) gave him five whacks at heaters at the top of the zone or above and after two swings and misses and two fouls, Yano lined the fifth one for a two-out 10th-inning RBI single that put Hiroshima ahead after the Carp spoiled Shosei Togo‘s shutout bid in the ninth inning.
Shogo Asano drove in Yomiuri’s first run for the second straight game, breaking a scoreless tie with the Giants’ third straight one-out sixth-inning single off Makoto Aduwa. Kaito Kozono tied it in the ninth and chased Togo with Hiroshima’s fifth hit of the game, a one-out RBI single that plated a pinch-runner after Takayoshi Noma led off with a single. Taisei Ota stranded two runners, and the Giants left two on in the bottom of the inning.
Ryosuke Kikuchi drew a one-out walk in the 10th and after a pinch-hit double from Shogo Akiyama to set the table for Yano, who drove in the go-ahead run with two outs.
Carp closer Ryoji Kuribayashi gave us a taste of his typical danger in the bottom of the inning, when Takumi Oshiro hit a rope toward the corner to open the inning. Although a fairly limited outfielder, Shota Suekane tracked it down and made a leaping catch to rob Oshiro of a double. A lineout and a strikeout ended it as Kuribayashi recorded his 33rd save.
Lions 2, Buffaloes 1, 12 innings: The good news for Orix was that the Buffaloes were not shutout for the first time in three games. Junichiro Kishi, who drove in the only run in Wednesday’s 1-0 Lions victory, singled and scored in the ninth on a Sosuke Genda single as Seibu walked it off.
New Lion Anthony Garcia opened the scoring in the fifth with a solo homer, his first in Japan.
Orix’s Leandro Cedeno got an unwelcome gift on his 26th birthday, getting popped on the elbow by a pitch that knocked him out of the game to open the seventh inning, but helped set up the tying run, when the Buffaloes loaded the bases ahead of Haruto Watanabe‘s RBI single.
The three-game sweep was Seibu’s first of the season.
Dragons 9, BayStars 8: At Yokohama Stadium, run-starved Chunichi twice came from behind to avoid a three-game sweep.
DeNA’s Andre Jackson allowed three runs over 6-1/3 innings, and catcher Yudai Yamamoto hit a three-run homer in the third, and tripled and scored on a squeeze by former Dragon Yota Kyoda, who drove in a run in all three games against his old club.
Shugo Maki went 4-for-4. He singled and scored on Yamamoto’s homer, and doubled and scored when Toshiro Miyazaki‘s sixth-inning single made it 7-1.
A Takaya Ishikawa double kicked off a two-run Dragons’ seventh, and Chunichi tied it in a four-run seventh, when the BayStars’ bullpen got two outs after Seiji Kawagoe‘s leadoff double only for the next five batters to reach with Kaito Muramatsu‘s two-run double opening the floodgates.
Maki doubled to lead off the eighth and scored on a Yamamoto single to break the deadlock, but closer Kohei Morihara () surrendered four hits to the first five batters he faced with Muramatsu singling in the tying run, and Mikiya Tanaka completing a 3-for-4 night with his second RBI single.
Raidel Martinez then closed it out with three straight strikeouts to record his 34th save.
Swallows 5, Tigers 2: At Osaka UFO Dome, Miguel Yajure allowed a run over 6-2/3 innings.
Yakult broke the 1-1 tie in the fifth, when left fielder Kairi Shimada, whose second-inning RBI double plated Yusuke Oyama for the game’s first run before he was tagged out at third on the play, let Yukihiro Iwata‘s one-out single get past him in left. Iwata scored from third when Munetaka Murakami‘s drive came off Oyama at first and into the stands for a ground-rule double.
Koyo Aoyagi, pitching for the first time since May 31, allowed two runs, one earned over six innings. The Tigers tied it in the eighth on Oyama’s 13th home run, but Yakult scored three runs in the ninth, starting when Tetsuto Yamada doubled in Hideki Nagaoka. Jose Osuna doubled in two insurance runs to cap the rally.
After the game, Swallows manager Shingo Takatsu joked about how good it felt not to be trailing after the first inning, “Pitching coach (Tomohito) Ito and I were giving each other high fives.”
Fighters 4, Marines 3: At Chiba Marine Stadium, Roki Sasaki (6-4) struck out eight and walked five, and looked good at the end, retiring nine of the last 10 batters he faced over six innings, after struggling mightily with his control from the second to the fourth innings.
Things started well for Lotte. Sasaki needed just six pitches in a 1-2-3 first inning, and entered the second with a 2-0 lead thanks to Gregory Polanco‘s 19th home run, off Takayuki Kato (7-7), who improved to 5-1 against the Marines this season.
But high straight fastballs from Sasaki resulted in a Kotaro Kiyomiya leadoff double in the second and a Franmil Reyes RBI single. Two walks in the third set the table for a Kiyomiya RBI single. A defensive mix-up left runners on second and third for Reyes to break the 2-2 tie with a sacrifice fly.
Lotte re-tied it with three singles followed by Takashi Ogino‘s bases-loaded walk. Daiki Asama put the Fighters back in front when he singled to open the fifth and scored on Kiyomiya’s second double.
