The Orix Buffaloes snapped their winless streak, a quartet of new Lions led the way for Seibu and Kotaro Kiyomiya and Chusei Mannami powered Nippon Ham to a big comeback. Tyler Austin hit a pair of home runs that helped end a pair of streaks in Yokohama while Masato Morishita continued to show he can both pitch and hit, for this season at least.
Saturday’s games:
Buffaloes 5, Marines 1: At Osaka UFO Dome, Ryoto Kita broke 1-1 fifth-inning tie with a two-run double off Yuji Nishino (8-6), and Daiki Tajima (5-4) allowed a run over eight innings as Orix snapped a streak of 10-straight losing decisions, its worst since the Buffaloes lost a franchise-record 12 straight decisions in 2012.
Singles by rookie Kosei Osato and Masahiro Nishino to open the first set up Ryoma Nishikawa‘s sacrifice fly. After the Buffaloes left the bases loaded in a scoreless second, Marines catcher Tatsuhiro Tamura doubled and tied it on a Yudai Fujioka single. Shingo Ishikawa doubled with one out in the fourth, but Kita threw him out trying to advance on a fly out to right.
With two outs in the fifth Tomoya Mori and Nishikawa singled, and Leandro Cedeno was hit by a pitch to load the bases.
Fighters 8, Hawks 7: At Fukuoka “Your company’s name can go here” Dome, Chusei Mannami hit a two-run homer and singled in the tying run in the eighth, and Franmil Reyes‘ pinch-hit RBI single off Darwinzon Hernandez (3-2) put the Fighters in front as Nippon Ham overcame a five-run deficit to beat league-leading SoftBank.
Kotaro Kiyomiya singled in a run in the first off former Fighter Kohei Arihara, only for the Hawks to take extra BP against Fighters starter Haruka Nemoto, who allowed five runs, four earned, in 2-1/3 innings. Mannami’s 14th home run made it a 6-3 game, and Kiyomiya tied it in the fifth inning with a three-run homer, his fifth.
Hotaka Yamakawa‘s PL-leading 19th homer gave SoftBank a 7-6 seventh-inning lead, but Hernandez couldn’t hold it.
Lions 7, Eagles 0: At the domed stadium formerly known as “Prince,” it was a big day for new Lions. Rookie Natsuki Takeuchi (7-2) allowed five hits but no walks over seven innings, Anthony Garcia doubled twice, Daiju Nomura delivered a sacrifice fly and Seiya Matsubara doubled, tripled and drove in three.
Seibu took a 3-0 lead against Ryota Takinaka (1-3) in the second on a Shuta Tonosaki leadoff walk, a Garcia double, a Nomura sacrifice fly, a Matsubara triple and a Ginjiro Sumitani sac fly. Sotozaki singled in a run in the eighth, Garcia doubled again and both runners scored on a Matsubara double.
Carp 4, Dragons 1: At New Hiroshima Citizens Stadium, Masato Morishita (8-4) struck out eight over eight innings and drove in two runs as Hiroshima won its fifth straight.
Chunichi opened the scoring with a run in the third. Takuya Kinoshita led off with a single and scored after singles by Kaito Muramatsu and Hiroki Fukunaga. Yudai Ono (1-3), pitching for the first time in over a month and the second time since April 20, took a 1-0 lead into the fifth, but gave it away in the fifth. Three straight no-out singles by Shogo Sakakura, Ryosuke Kikuchi and Masaya Yano should have loaded the bases, but Ono’s errant throw on Yano’s bunt single tied it. With the infield in, the Carp’s No. 8 batter, career .168 hitter Morishita singled in two to give himself the lead. Morishita is 10-for-31 this year with three RBIs.
Yano tripled in the seventh and scored on a Shogo Akiyama single, and Ryoji Kuribayashi flirted with danger as he does, allowing back-to-back singles to open the ninth before recording his 30th save.
The Dragons lost a pair of runners on the bases, and Ono failed to get a bunt down in the third, which pleased manager Kazuyoshi Tatsunami no end.
“We made a lot of mistakes, bunting and running the bases,” he said. “We don’t score a lot, so if we make those mistakes we can’t win.”
Giants 8, Swallows 4: At Tokyo Ugly Dome, Munetaka Murakami hit a two-run first-inning homer, his 20th, off Haruto Inoue before the Giants came from behind in the second on catcher Yukinori Kishida‘s three-run shot off Keiji Takahashi (3-6). Kazuma Okamoto doubled with two outs in the third, and Takumi Oshiro, who singled to lead off Yomiuri’s second, singled Okamoto home to make it 4-2.
Tetsuto Yamada drew his second walk of the game with two outs in the fifth and scored his second run, on a Jose Osuna single, but the Giants played long ball in the home half. Naoki Yoshikawa singled to open the inning before back-to-back homers by Elier Hernandez, his seventh, and Okamoto, his 17th, to chase Takahashi, who allowed seven runs in four-plus innings. Oshiro followed with another singled and scored on a sac fly to make it 8-3.
BayStars 10, Tigers 4: At Yokohama Stadium, Tyler Austin homered twice, Keita Sano homered and drove in two as DeNA came back from an early 3-0 deficit to snap its nine-game losing streak, while preventing Hanshin from winning its ninth straight.
Koji Chikamoto opened the game with a single off rookie Teruki Yoshino, who surrendered back-to-back one-out homers to Shota Morishita, his ninth, and Teruaki Sato, his seventh. Austin, however tied it with his 16th home run after Koki Kajiwara singled to open DeNA’s first, and Kotaro Otake walked Shugo Maki.
Takumu Nakano greeted DeNA reliever Rowan Wick with a fifth-inning leadoff double and scored on a Sato single. Austin’s 17th homer, to lead off the sixth, tied it 4-4. Tigers reliever Yuta Iwasada, who made his season debut with a scoreless inning on Thursday, issued a four-pitch walk at the start of the seventh. After a sacrifice and an intentional walk to Maki, Keita Sano singled in the tie-breaking run and Maki scored on a throwing error by Chikamoto in center.
The Tigers’ second error of the game moved them two ahead of DeNA for the most in NPB with 65, and DeNA piled on four more runs in the eighth.
