Roki Sasaki made a big adjustment and nearly went the distance, while his BFF, Hiroya Miyagi had a tough night in Sendai, where a high profile rookie earned his first win. Two Hanshin Tigers had big firsts in Hiroshima, while the Yakult Swallows and Yomiuri Giants both won in 12 innings on the road — the Giants win coming only after the umpires ignored the rules to deny them a ninth-inning run.
Wednesday’s games
Marines 2, Lions 1: At Chiba Marine Stadium, two fastballs into the game, Sasaki (6-2) was in trouble on a Shuta Tonosaki double and a Sosuke Genda single, but responded with three strikeouts and didn’t leave until he’d struck out 11 over eight innings.
Through the first two innings he’d given up three hits, all on first-pitch fastballs, while striking out five. Then he adjusted, opening with splitters and sliders to those guys.
Lotte took the lead against Kaima Taira (5-4), on a third-inning double by rookie shortstop Atsuki Tomosugi and a sweet single from Katsuya Kakunaka. And while Sasaki cruised with hitters hunting fastballs and flailing at splitters, Shogo Nakamura homered to make it 2-0 in the sixth.
Marines closer Naoya Masuda struck out the first two batters in the ninth before surrendering an infield single and an RBI double on a difficult but catchable ball in left to speedy defensive substitute Koshiro Wada.
With the tying run on second, the right-hander secured his 20th save with another strikeout.
Asked about Sasaki’s game, Kakunaka talked about his high expectations for the 21-year-old.
“He’s not there yet,” Kakunaka said. “I keep expecting him to strike out 27. I was next to him in the dugout at the end, but was thinking he could have been out there to the end.”
Tigers 2, Carp 0: At New Hiroshima Citizens Stadium, Hanshin – without Koji Chikamoto – were sparked offensively by his understudy, while Kotaro Otake (7-1) threw a five-hit shutout while striking out seven and walking none. It was the first career shutout for the lefty Hanshin acquired through December’s active player draft.
In place of Chikamoto, who was deactivated Tuesday after a pitch broke a rib on Sunday, Kairi Shimada opened the game against Masato Morishita (4-2) with his first major league homer. Shimada walked to open the third, and after two walks loaded the bases, scored on a Ryosuke Kikuchi “error” that would have been a tough play.
Hawks 5, Fighters 1: At Fukuoka Dome, Kensuke Kondo singled in the first of three first-inning SoftBank runs, and doubled in two more in the second off submarine right-hander Kenya Suzuki (6-3). Hawks starter Yugo Bando (3-1) allowed a run over seven innings.
The win pushed the Hawks a half game in front of the Buffaloes and into the PL lead.
Giants 7, Dragons , 12 innings: At Nagoya Dome, Yomiuri’s Takayuki Kajitani singled in two 12th-inning runs to break a 5-5 tie, and Chunichi’s rally in the bottom of the inning fell just short in a game that saw each team use nine pitchers.
Kazuma Okamoto hit a first-inning grand slam off WBC teammate Hiroto Takahashi, but Chunichi overcame a 5-1 deficit to tie it against Foster Griffin, who started the season 3-0 against the Dragons thanks to a big night from Takaya Ishikawa, who went 4-for-6 with two doubles, a run and two RBIs.
The Giants were royally screwed in the ninth, when catcher Kota Ishibashi tagged the go-ahead run out at the plate on Okamoto’s fourth hit of the night.
Ishibashi covered the plate with his left leg as both the runner and the ball approached, which is a violation of baseball’s 120-year-old obstruction rule. When he caught the ball he then covered the plate, which, while not a violation in MLB, is against the rules in NPB.
The umpires asked to rule on the play saw nothing wrong with the play, although if Chunichi’s owners are as cheap as Hiroshima’s and Orix’s then perhaps the umps couldn’t overturn the call because their only look at it was on a cheap-ass six-inch monochrome monitor that didn’t give them a good look.
Yuto Akihiro singled to open Yomiuri’s 11th and Okamoto was hit by a pitch by Daisuke Sobue () to set the table for Kajitani.
Rookie Chiharu Tanaka (), the Giants’ eighth pitcher, surrendered a leadoff double to Ishikawa. A walk, a sacrifice and a wild pitch put the tying run 90 feet away but Tyler Beede got the final out for his first save in Japan.
Eagles 6, Buffaloes 1: At Miyagi Stadium, Kosei Soji (1-3), Rakuten’s top signing in last autumn’s draft, struck out eight over six scoreless innings to earn his first pro win.
Maikel Franco got the Eagles’ runs rolling in with a second-inning RBI double. Ryosuke Tatsumi doubled him in and scored on a Hiroto Kobukata single.
Orix’s Hiroya Miyagi (6-3) settled down after that second inning, but still allowed four runs over five on six hits and a walk while striking out five.
Swallows 5, Deniers 4, 12 innings: At Yokohama Stadium, HIromu Irie (1-1) issued a one-out 12th-inning walk, and a Ryusei Takeoka single put runners on the corners with two outs, allowing the go-ahead run to score on a passed ball by DeNA catcher Hikaru Ito.
Yakult’s Reiji Kozawa allowed three runs over five innings, and doubled and scored the go-ahead run to break a 3-3 fifth-inning tie. He gave up two runs after hitting the leadoff man in the first with a pitch and then walking the next one. Two walks from Kenta Ishida helped the Swallows tie it in the second, despite losing a runner on the bases to the arm of center fielder Masayuki Kuwahara.
Ishida’s second straight leadoff walk helped Yakult to a 3-2 lead in the third, while Kozawa gave it back after issuing a two-out walk to Neftali Soto and surrendering singles to Tatsuya Shibata and Yasutaka Tobashira. Soto’s sixth-inning RBI single off Tomoya Hoshi tied it 4-4 in the sixth.
A posse of Swallows relievers would allow DeNA just one more runner over the final six innings with Kazuto Taguchi getting his 18th save as Yakult won its fourth straight.
