Yoshinobu Yamamoto was lights out, and the Hawks proved that no matter how hard you hit the ball sometimes it doesn’t matter, and the Fighters played their seventh-straight one-run game, while we had three late-inning meltdowns.
Saturday’s games
Buffaloes 3, Hawks 2: At Fukuoka Dome, Yoshinobu Yamamoto (9-3) was cool under pressure in the only real threat he faced, struck out nine over eight innings, while allowing a run on eight hits. Yuma Tongu singled in Orix’s first-inning run off Kohei Arihara (3-2), and hit his 11th home run in the sixth. Tomoya Noguchi doubled in an insurance run in the ninth, which proved to be crucial after neither Soichiro Yamazaki or Yuki Udagawa could keep the Hawks from hitting the bejeezus out of the ball.
Misaki Mimori homered in the seventh for SoftBank, and after Yuma Mune turned Alfredo Despaigne’s smash into a double play, Mimori singled in his second run. Yamasaki walked another batter before Hikaru Kawase hit a bullet that Tongu gloved at first base for the final out, to gift Udagawa his first save.
The Hawks’ loss was their seventh straight.
Swallows 3, Giants 1: At Jingu Stadium, with Yakult wearing their Key Lime Pie outfits, lefty Dillon Peters (4-3) struck out eight over seven innings while allowing a run.
Dillon Peters hero interview
Naoki Yoshikawa’s third home run put the Giants up 1-0 in the third with their first hit against Peters. Yakult came from behind in the fourth off rookie lefty Haruto Inoue (0-1) after a Domingo Santana double, a Munetaka Murakami single and a Jose Osuna walk juiced the bags with the tying run scoring on a hard-hit out to first and catcher Yuhei Nakamura squeezing home the go-ahead run on the next pitch.
Yakult made it 3-1 off former Nationals reliever Alberto Baldonado, who retired the first two batters he faced in Japan, Santana and Murakami, only for Osuna to hit the Panamanian’s first pitch for his 14th home run.
Noboru Shimizu and former Giant Kazuto Taguchi each retired all three batters he faced with Taguchi getting his 21st save.
Swallows-Giants highlights
Carp 2, Deniers 1: At Yokohama Stadium, Shogo Sakakura tied it with one out in the ninth off Yasuaki Yamasaki (0-6) with his eighth home run. A Matt Davidson double and a Kaito Kozono single set up veteran Tsubasa Aizawa to deliver the go-ahead run with a pinch-hit sacrifice fly. New closer Takuya Yasaki worked a 1-2-3 ninth against meat of the DeNA order for his 15th save.
Shota Imanaga broke a scoreless tie in the sixth inning, squeezing home Yota Kyoda after a Yasutaka Tobashira single put runners on the corners with one out against Hiroshima ace Daichi Osera, who allowed two base runners over seven innings. Ryoji Kuribayashi (2-6) stranded two in the eighth to earn the win.
DeNA-Carp highlights
Lions 1, Fighters 0: At Seibu Dome, Sosuke Genda reached on a ninth-inning infield single and scored the game’s only run on Takeya Nakamura’s one-out sayonara double. Nippon Ham, which has now lost eight straight and seven in a row by one run, got eight shutout innings from Naoyuki Uwasawa, while Seibu got seven from Kaito Yozawa in an unsurprising result for two of the PL’s worst offenses.
Dragons 6, Tigers 4, 10 innings: At Koshien Stadium, Chunichi came from behind with four late runs, the last two after the umpires called a Dragons runner out at the plate despite a rule that said he should be safe.
Shota Morishita doubled to open Hanshin’s first inning and scored on a single by fellow rookie Ukyo Maegawa. Chunichi took a 2-1 third-inning lead when pitcher Hiroto Takahashi squeezed home rookie Kaito Muramatsu and Yuki Okabayashi brought home Ryuku Tsuchida with a sacrifice fly.
Singles by Takumu Nakano and Yusuke Oyama set up the first run of a two-run Tigers fourth. With two outs, Teruaki Sato fouled off a couple of two-strike pitches before walking to keep the inning alive and allowing Ryutaro Umeno to single in the go-ahead run.
Three one-out walks in the eighth set up a Hanshin insurance run, but DeNA struck twice in the ninth off Yuta Iwasada. A single, a walk and a groundout to first set up Okabayashi’s two-run single.
Chunichi’s Tatsuya Shimizu worked a 1-2-3 ninth, and the Dragons took the lead in the 10th.
Career minor leaguers Hayato Mizowaki doubled to open the inning, and should have scored the go-ahead run by NPB rules, if it weren’t for the fact that Japan has decided to throw its collision rule out the window – the part that prevents catchers from blocking the plate WITH the ball, as Umeno did when he applied the tag for the second out in the inning.
The umpires’ error was followed by two by Hanshin, however. Nakano fumbled a grounder to put two on with two outs. Yohei Oshima singled in the go-ahead run and another scored when the throw back to the infield hit Oshima.
Raidel Martinez then worked the 10th to earn his 22nd save and move one ahead of Yakult lefty Kazuto Taguchi.
Tigers-Dragons highlights
Marines 9, Eagles 7: At Chiba Marine Stadium, Lotte ended Rakuten’s eight-game win streak or rather the streak capsized and sank in a disastrous eighth inning from the bullpen that ranks by Delta Graphs’ calculations as last in NPB in runs allowed above replacement.
Shogo Nakamura plate Yudai Fujioka in the first against Wataru Karashima with his eighth home run. Yuya Ogo got one run back in the third with an RBI single. Rakuten leaped in front on five-straight one-out fifth-inning singles off Kazuya Ojima to make it 6-2, but the Marines’ counterattack was swift.
A Hisanori Yasuda single and a Shingo Ishikawa double and a Toshiya Sato walk set up a two-run Lotte fifth. Ryosuke Tatsumi homered in the seventh to make it 7-4 Eagles.
Nakamura walked to open the Marines’ four-run eighth, when Gregory Polanco missed a game-tying three-run homer by a few feet, and settled for driving in Nakamura with a sac fly.
Tomohito Sakai walked the bases loaded with two outs. Tomohiro Anraku inherited that mess, threw a 3-2 wild pitch – with the runners moving – that scored two and left the batter, Katsuya Kakunaka at second. Hiromi Oka then completed the job with a sinking liner to center that Tatsumi misplayed into a two-run triple.
