There were strikeouts on Roki Day on a sell-out weeknight crowd in Chiba, a Shosei Togo shutout, another strong effort from Jeremy Beasley as Hanshin avoided being swept at Jingu Stadium while two PL teams did complete three-game sweeps.
Thursday’s games:
Giants 5, Carp 0: At Tokyo Ugly Dome, Yomiuri’s Shosei Togo (8-6) and Hiroshima’s Daichi Osera (4-2) battled to a scoreless draw through 6-1/2 innings before the Giants opened the scoring in the bottom of the seventh on singles by Takumi Oshiro and Hayato Sakamoto, and a Coco Montes double. The Carp failed to get the first out against Togo, who was credited with an RBI on a single that got past left fielder Shota Suekane, allowing two more runs to score.
“The ball bounced in the opposite direction from how I expected it to,” Suuekane said.
Osera left after issuing a one-out walk, and Elier Hernandez singled in the inning’s fifth run. Togo allowed five hits, a walk and a hit batsman while striking out five over the distance to snap Hiroshima’s eight-game unbeaten run.
The teams split the series one win, one loss and one tie.
“I think for playing on the road, everyone gave their best effort,” Carp manager Takahiro Arai said. “We played good baseball.”
BayStars 4, Dragons 2: At Nagoya Dome, Shugo Maki broke the ice with fourth-inning leadoff homer, his 17th. Masayuki Kuwahara‘s one-out bases-loaded single made it 2-0 off Takahiro Matsuba (3-5). Former Dragon Yota Kyoda delivered a sacrifice fly, DeNA starting pitcher Andre Jackson (5-7) singled and Matsuba issued a bases-loaded walk before retiring Maki.
The Dragons broke up Jackson’s shutout bid in the seventh on an error and a home run by Takaya Ishikawa, his second.
Tigers 6, Swallows 3: At Jingu “Tokyo’s sacrifice to corporate greed and governmental malfeasance” Stadium, Hanshin came from a run down, tying it on Shota Morishita‘s 10th homer to lead off a two-run fourth off Kojiro Yoshimura (5-6). Teruaki Sato walked and advanced all the way to third on a groundout before scoring the go-ahead run on an Ukyo Maegawa single. Morishita’s third hit, a two-run single, highlighted a four-run Tigers fifth. Jeremy Beasley (6-1) struck out six over seven innings, while allowing a run.
Hawks 6, Marines 3: At Chiba Marine Stadium, the Hawks had enough good contact and a lucky bounce to scored three runs off Roki Sasaki (6-3), who struck out nine over five innings while walking one and not hitting a batter.
Both Sasaki, who reached a career-high in hits allowed with nine, and SoftBank right-hander Shuta Ishikawa (3-2) ran up their pitch counts and were done after five, although Lotte was unable to score against the Hawks starter.
The Hawks scored twice in the second, thanks to a one-out Tatsuro Yanagimachi single that hit the first-base bag and sailed over Neftali Soto‘s head. Takuya Kai followed with a single and Taisei Makihara put a good swing on a bad pitch for a two-run double. Yanagimachi singled in Kensuke Kondo in the third, and the Hawks were rolling.
“I can’t figure out why the only pitch they were hitting well was his fastball,” Marines manager Masato Yoshii said. “I didn’t get any sense that it was that bad.”
Hiromi Oka doubled and scored on a Gregory Polanco infield single in the sixth, only for Hotaka Yamakawa and Tomoya Masaki to homer in the top of the seventh to make it 5-1. Ryoya Kurihara homered in the ninth to complete the scoring.
Buffaloes 3, Lions 0: At Osaka UFO Dome, Orix’s Taito Takashima (1-1) worked five innings, and three relievers completed the three-hit shutout. Orix swept the Lions, with former Marine Luis Perdomo earning his first save as a Buffalo.
Tomoya Mori drove in two insurance runs with his seventh home run, in the seventh off Kaima Taira, appearing in his sixth game of the season and his first since April 30.
“I threw it right down the middle and Mori-san got all of it,” Taira said.
Fighters 5, Eagles 4: At Miyagi Stadium, Shun Mizutani singled in Nippon Ham’s fourth-inning tie-breaking run, and Chusei Mannami homered in the top of the fifth to make it 5-3 as the Fighters completed a three-game sweep in Sendai.
