The Nippon Ham Fighters treated their fans to another ninth-inning game of “Dude, where’s my base runner?” Kenta Ishida did it all for DeNA. Yakult needs more than just Munetaka Murakami, while I need a better picture of Shogo Sakakura than the one I snapped Tuesday in case I needed it for my blog.
Thursday’s games
Eagles 3, Fighters 2: At Kitahiroshima Taxpayers Burden Field, Rakuten’s Takayuki Kishi and Nippon Ham’s Takayuki Kato each allowed a run in the first, and another on a home run to leave the game tied 2-2. Chusei Mannami threw a runner out at the plate to keep the Eagles from scoring the go-ahead run in the seventh.
Daichi Suzuki doubled with one out in the ninth to set up Hiroto Kobukata‘s RBI single, and as it did in Chiba a couple of weeks ago, a golden opportunity in the ninth opportunity vanished.
Ariel Martinez‘s 10th homer made it 2-1 in the third, and Yukiya Ito tied it for the Eagles with a solo shot off Kato in the sixth. In the bottom of the ninth, the Fighters put two on with no outs against closer Yuki Matsui, when the runner on first got greedy. On a deep fly out to right, the lead runner advanced to third, and the trailing runner, Ryota Isobata was out at second for a double play. Matsui then struck out Mannami on a 3-2 pitch out of the zone.
The win was Rakuten’s eighth straight, while the Fighters have dropped seven in a row, including six straight by one run.
Dragons 4, Swallows 2: At Jingu Stadium, home runs by Domingo Santana and Munetaka Murakami off Shinnosuke Ogasawara (6-5) left the game tied 2-2 after five.
Newly acquired catcher Shingo Usami belted his first Central League homer to put Chunichi in front, and Yuki Okabayashi used his speed to beat a good throw home on Takaya Ishikawa‘s eighth-inning double.
Ogasawara struck out nine and walked one while allowing four hits over seven innings, and became one of the few pitchers, it seems, to retire Swallows pinch-hitter Shingo Kawabata and end Yakult’s seventh with two on. Tatsuya Shimizu and Raidel Martinez each retired three straight batters with Martinez getting his 21st save. Swallows side-armer Reiji Kozawa (3-2) struck out seven over six innings, while walking one, hitting one and allowing five hits.
Murakami’s 15th homer was his third in two nights.
Swallows-Dragons highlights
Lions 4, Hawks 2: At Fukuoka Dome, A hit batsman and a David MacKinnon single set up Seibu’s go-ahead run in the eighth inning. MacKinnon reached base four times with a double, a walk and a run scored as the Lions came from two runs down.
Kaima Taira (6-4) juggled four walks, a hit batsman and four singles to allow just two runs, on Yuki Yanagita‘s fifth-inning RBI single. Sosuke Genda had three hits and two RBIs, including one on a ninth-inning double. Tatsushi Masuda earned his 15th save.
Carp 6, Giants 1: At Tokyo Dome, Kazuma Okamoto doubled and scored against Carp starter Allen Kuri on Naoki Yoshikawa‘s fourth-inning sacrifice fly. Hiroshima tied it in the sixth on three singles off Shosei Togo. Hiroshima loaded the bases with no outs in the 11th. Ryuhei Matsuyama, whose infield single brought in the tying run, hit a bullet to first that Sho Nakata turned into a 3-2-3 double play only for Shogo Sakakura to single through the drawn-in infield to plate two.
Shota Dobayashi’s three-run double capped the five-run rally.
Deniers 4, Tigers 0: At Koshien Stadium, Kenta Ishida (3-4) threw five shutout innings, and broke up a scoreless tie with two-run fifth-inning single against rookie Shoki Murakami (6-5) after DeNA’s No. 8 hitter, catcher Yuya Yamamoto sacrificed the runners ahead of him. Shugo Maki‘s 16th homer made it 4-0 in the eighth.
