The ball was flying, particularly in Chiba, where Gregory Polanco, hit three of the six homers there, while Leandro Cedeno, and Matt Davidson, and Yuhei Nakamura all hit big ones. There was some bad injury news, and a lot of good pitching and some sweet breath-taking defense.
Sunday’s games
Buffaloes 2, Hawks 1, 10 innings: At Fukuoka Dome, Orix’s Hiroya Miyagi and SoftBank’s Nao Higashihama each allowed an early run over eight innings. Higashihama struck out nine, walked none and allowed three hits, retiring 19 straight after Yuma Mune tied the game with his second home run in the second.
Kensuke Kondo put SoftBank in front in the first, when he doubled with two outs and scored on a Yuki Yanagita single, but after the Hawks loaded the bases in the eighth on a single, an intentional walk and a hit batsman, he was hopping mad when a low-and-away 3-1 pitch he took for a called strike and then swung and missed 3-2 to leave the bags juiced.
Shota Abe (1-2) worked a 1-2-3 eighth, and Leandro Cedeno blasted a leadoff homer, his fourth, to open the 10th against Yuki Matsumoto (0-3), and Yoshihisa Hirano took out the bottom of the order for his 15th save and consigning the Hawks to their eighth straight loss.
Swallows 10, Giants 3: At Jingu Stadium, with Yakult back dressed like the unripe cousins of the Savanah Bananas, Keiji Takahashi (4-5) allowed two runs over six innings. Yuto Akihiro homered and Adam Walker tripled and scored on a sac fly, before Yakult lowered the boom
The Swallows put up four runs on Yohander Méndez (1-3) in the fourth, highlighted by Yuhei Nakamura’s three-run home run. The Swallows then tagged rookie Chiharu Tanaka for five runs in one-third of an inning in the fifth.
Norichika Aoki singled to open the fourth with Yakult’s first hit and Domingo Santana followed with a double, and both reached base and scored in the fifth as well.
Swallows-Giants highlights
Carp 3, Deniers 2: At Yokohama Stadium, Matt Davidson hit a two-run homer, his ninth, off DeNA’s Katsuki Azuma, and Hiroshima’s Yusuke Nomura remained unscored upon in three starts this season.
Keita Sano, however, brought DeNA back against the Carp bullpen. He singled and scored on Taishi Kusumoto’s sixth-inning pinch-hit double to halve Hiroshima’s lead against former closer Ryoji Kuribayashi. That hit might have tied it but for a tremendous relay throw when Carp shortstop Kaito Kozono to nail the runner from first at the plate.
In the seventh, however, Sano doubled in Masayuki Kuwahara off lefty Nik Turley (5-0) to tie it.
The Carp took the lead for good in the eighth on a two-out error by right fielder Taiki Sekine and a Takayoshi Noma RBI single. Reliever Sotaro Shimauchi took care of the bottom of the DeNA order 1-2-3 in the eighth, and new closer Takuya Yasaki got two outs with the winning run on second base, striking out Shugo Maki to end the game with his 16th save.
DeNA-Carp
Lions 2, Fighters 0: At Seibu Dome, Kona Takahashi (6-6) threw a four-hitter for his first shutout of the season as Nippon Ham was blanked for the second straight day. Takeya Nakamura, who drove in Saturday’s only run at the domed stadium formerly known as Prince, hit his ninth home run off Kenta Uehara (1-4) with two outs and Sosuke Genda on base. The loss was the Fighters’ ninth straight but snapped their streak of seven one-run losses in a row.
Dragons 3, Tigers 0: At Koshien Stadium, Humberto Mejia (2-0) allowed three hits and two walks over six innings, Seiya Hosokawa belted his 12th home run, off Masashi Ito (3-4) and Shunta Goto, batting for Mejia, singled in Shingo Usami and Dayan Viciedo in the seventh.
Mejia left the bags filled with Tigers in the fifth by retiring the last four batters he faced before three relievers, Akiyoshi Katsuno, Tatsuya Shimizu and Raidel Martinez took out three each with Martinez saving his 23rd.
Tigers-Dragons highlights
Eagles 7, Marines 6: At Chiba Marine Stadium, Gregory Polanco hit three home runs, all solo shots, but Hideto Asamura hit a pair of two-run homers, and now leads the PL with 18, with one coming in the first and the other in a four-run ninth, when Rakuten broke a 3-3 tie. Former Dragons Toshiki Abe made it 7-3 with his first PL homer off Lotte closer Naoya Masuda.
The Marines didn’t go quietly into that good night, however. Hisanori Yasuda hit a two-run homer off Sung Chia-hao. Yuki Matsui came in and surrendered a run on two hits but held on for his 22nd save by striking out Polanco.
Moinelo out for season
Cuban international Livan Moinelo, the Hawks’ ablest reliever, is set to have left elbow surgery, multiple media outlets reported Sunday. The 27-year-old has not pitched since July 1.
Moinelo has struck out 12.04 batters per nine innings with a 0.58 WHIP. In 27 games, he is 3-0 with 13 holds and five saves.
