Japan has a new league leader Thursday, when Masahiro Tanaka‘s progress toward There’s also an injury update on Norichika Aoki.
Thursday’s games
Fighters 9, Eagles 5: At Miyagi Stadium, Nippon Ham made a meal of Masahiro Tanaka (5-6), breaking a 2-2 fifth-inning tie in a six-run inning, that the Eagles starter did not survive. Maikel Franco doubled and scored the tying run for Rakuten in the fourth, and with the Eagles trailing 8-2 in the fifth, he belted a two-run homer, his seventh.
Carp 4, Swallows 1: At New Hiroshima Citizens Stadium, an intriguing southpaw pitchers’ duel between the Swallows’ 43-year-old elder statesman Masanori Ishikawa and Hiroki Tokoda (9-2) that saw this game tied 1-1 after six innings. Ishikawa was cruising but left after 65 pitches when he was hurt fielding a ball to open the sixth.
Shota Suekane, who demolished the Swallows with his bat on Wednesday, doubled to open the seventh and set up the go-ahead run to score on Tsubasa Aizawa‘s second RBI single. Shota Dobayashi doubled in two in the eighth to put the icing on this cake as Hiroshima won its 10th straight and moved into first place, one game ahead of the Tigers and Tokoda took over the CL’s ERA lead at 1.85.
Tigers 8, Giants 5: At Koshien Stadium, Shosei Togo (9-2) allowed five runs in seven innings and had a pair of hits to help him secure the win as Yomiuri took a stick to the usually stingy Hiroto Saiki (5-5).
Togo singled to lead off the Giants’ third and scored on Yuto Akihiro‘s two-run single. The Tigers tied it on Yusuke Oyama’s leadoff homer in the fourth but the tie unraveled in the fifth. Takayuki Kajitani homered with one out and none on. But with two outs, the sky fell on the Tigers. Starting with an error, seven straight batters, including Togo, reached to make it 8-2.
Takumu Nakano‘s second RBI double of the game made it 8-3 and rookie Shota Morishita singled in two with two outs to make it a three-run game. Kota Nakagawa, however, worked a 1-2-3 ninth for the Giants for his second save.
Tigers-Giants highlights
Deniers 2, Dragons 1: At Nagoya Dome, DeNA’s Toshiro Miyazaki looked as bad as one can look on a third-inning breaking pitch from Humberto Mejia (2-1) but slammed the following fastball into the stands for a two-run homer.
Dragons-DeNA highlights
Aoki back on the field after scare
Yakult Swallows outfielder Norichika Aoki, who was stretchered off the field Wednesday and sent to the hospital in Hiroshima, returned to the field before Thursday’s game in Hiroshima. He played catch but did not take BP. Aoki’s MLB career took a nosedive in 2015, when he was twice hit by pitches. One broke a bone, and the other left him concussed.
