We had a full schedule on Wednesday, and both league’s races tightened ever so slightly,
Swallows 8, Giants 8, 12 innings: At Osaka Dome, a 5-hour, 28-minute game, the season’s longest, ended with Scott McGough striking out the top of the Yomiuri order in the bottom of the 12th to secure a wild draw, made possible by two innings of scoreless extra-inning relief from the Giants’ Ian Krol and the Swallows’ Naofumi Kizawa.
Once more, Munetaka Murakami was the center of attention, but failed for the second night to hit his 50th home run, but did play a crucial role, while Jose Osuna picked up the slack.
Yakult opened the scoring in the second on a Murakami leadoff walk and a two-run homer by Osuna, his 16th off rookie Haruto Inoue, but that lead evaporated in the home half when Hirotoshi Takanashi walked Giants cleanup hitter Sho Nakata and left a straight fastball over the plate that Kazuma Okamoto hit for his 25th home run.
Four singles followed on bad pitches, good swings and good bounces as Hayato Sakamoto singled in the go-ahead run and a Gregory Polanco flare made it 4-2. Yakult tied it in the fourth on a Murakami triple, an RBI grounder from Osuna and Domingo Santana’s 14th homer.
After 2-1/3 scoreless innings from Yakult reliever Hiroki Onishi, Yugo Umeno couldn’t throw strikes. Doubles by Polanco and Yoshiro Maru broke the tie, Naoyuki Yoshikawa singled in a run and Shinnosuke Shigenobu walked with the bases loaded before Sakamoto flied out to the warning track in dead center for the third out.
Tetsuto Yamada homered to open the Swallows’ sixth against lefty Kyosuke Takagi, who retired Murakami but walked Osuna and surrendered a Santana double before Patrick Kivlehan delivered a sac fly off Rubby De La Rosa.
Osuna put Yakult in front 8-7 with a two-out two-run single after Ryuta Heinai walked Murakami on four pitches to load the bases. Swallows reliever Takuma Kubo walked one and hit one to open the seventh, when Yomiuri tied it on a sacrifice and a groundout.
BayStars 3, Dragons 2: At Yokohama Stadium, DeNA broke a 2-2 tie in the sixth when Masayuki Kuwahara drew a leadoff walk, went to third on a Keita Sano single and scored on a groundout off Akiyoshi Katsuno.
The Dragons scored in the second on Toshiki Abe’s eighth homer, off Haruhiro Hamaguchi, and the BayStars tied in the second on Neftali Soto’s 14th. Katsuno doubled and scored the go-ahead run on a double play in the third, but surrendered the tying run on Yasutaka Tobashira’s fourth homer.
Tigers 6, Carp 5: At Koshien Stadium, Mel Rojas Jr. broke a 5-5 seventh-inning tie with a one-out sacrifice fly as four Hanshin relievers each worked a scoreless inning of relief in the come-from-behind win with Kyle Keller getting his third save.
Yusuke Oyama, whose home run provided the only run in Tuesday’s win, doubled in the tying run with one out in the fourth off Allen Kuri, whose second walk of the inning loaded the bases before a Seiya Kinami infield single and a two-run Ryutaro Umeno single made it 5-1.
Facing the bottom of the order in the fifth, Tigers starter Masashi Ito allowed a single and a walk before Takayoshi Noma’s one-out single and a three-run homer by Ryuske Kikuchi, who had singled in a run in the third.
Trailing 5-4 in the bottom of the fifth, Teruaki Sato singled with two outs off Robert Corniel, stole second and scored on an Oyama single.
Lions 4, Fighters 2: At Seibu Dome, Nippon Ham broke a 2-2 seventh-inning tie against reliever Yoshinobu Mizukami (4-4) on two-out singles by Kotaro Kiyomiya and Kensuke Kondo and a wild pitch before Go Matsumoto singled in his third run of the game.
Matsumoto doubled in former Fighter Fumikazu Kimura and Kondo in the first off rookie Chihiro Sumida, only for Tomoya Mori to tie it off rookie Haruka Nemoto in the fifth with a two-run double.
Kosei Yoshida (2-3) got the win after pitching a 1-2-3 sixth, and Naoya Ishikawa got his third save.
Marines 3, Hawks 0: At Fukuoka Dome, Ayumu Ishikawa (7-5) scattered eight singles and over six innings, a trio of relievers retired nine of the 10 batters they faced, and Hisanori Yasuda drove in a pair of runs as Lotte kept SoftBank a half-game back in the PL.
Some hyper-aggressive base running cost SoftBank a first-inning run-scoring chance, when Kenta Imamiya was tagged out trying to go to third on a grounder to short, which is OK, but the batter failed to watch what was going on, headed for second and was tagged out in a double play.
Lotte scored twice in the fourth off Shuta Ishikawa (5-8), when Shogo Nakamura singled and Koki Yamaguchi walked. Yasuda singled in one run and another scored on a bases-loaded ground out.
Trailing 2-0 in the sixth, the Hawks wasted another chance when Freddy Galvis singled to open the inning but was thrown out easily on what looked like someone missed a sign, and Lotte made it 3-0 in the eighth on Yasuda’s sixth home run.
Lotte’s unrepentant domestic abuser got the save.
Buffaloes 8, Eagles 3: At Miyagi Stadium, Yuma Tongu tied the game 2-2 with a two-run second-inning homer off Wataru Karashima (4-3), and broke a 3-3 tie in the fourth with a three-run shot, his seventh of the year.
Buffaloes starter Daiki Tajima (9-3) struck out eight over seven innings. He gave up a two-run first-inning homer to Hideto Asamura, his 21st, and opened the second by walking Chris Gittens, who scored on a Daichi Suzuki single.
Orix’s win moved them to within one game of second-place SoftBank and 1-1/2 games of the Lions, while the Eagles, losers of four straight, fell two games behind the Buffaloes in fourth place.
Thursday’s starting pitchers
Eagles vs Buffaloes: Miyagi Stadium 6 pm, 5 am EDT
Shoma Fujihira (1-0, 3.10) vs Jesse Biddle (4-4, 3.13)
Lions vs Fighters: Omiya Stadium 6 pm, 5 am EDT
Shunsuke Sato (3-3, 4.22) vs Kenya Suzuki (1-0, 2.92)
Hawks vs Marines: Fukuoka Dome 6 pm, 5 am EDT
Colin Rea (5-3, 3.72) vs Manabu Mima (6-6, 3.71)
BayStars vs Dragons: Yokohama Stadium 6 pm, 5 am EDT
Fernando Romero (4-7, 5.25) vs Kotaro Ueda (0-3, 2.77)
Tigers vs Carp: Koshien Stadium 6 pm, 5 am EDT
Hiroto Saiki (3-1, 1.80) vs Yusuke Nomura (2-2, 3.82)
Active roster moves 8/31/2022
Deactivated players can be re-activated from 9/10
Pacific League
Activated
| Buffaloes | P | 56 | Atsuya Kogita |
| Buffaloes | IF | 00 | Ryota Ishioka |
| Fighters | P | 59 | Haruka Nemoto |
Dectivated
| Buffaloes | P | 35 | Motoki Higa |
| Buffaloes | OF | 41 | Kodai Sano |
| Eagles | P | 14 | Takahiro Norimoto |
