Japan had two nail-biting 1-0 games decided by late solo homers, Gregory Polanco was a Marine hero again, Leo Cedeno was the big Buffaloes basher, unheralded Carp rookie Shohei Mori had a game as did Eagles rookie Masaru Fuji, who was the benefactor of a big day from Hideto Asamura.
Deniers 1, Giants 0, 12 innings: At Tokyo Dome, Shugo Maki’s 14th home run broke up this scoreless game in the 12th, and Yasuaki Yamasaki earned his 20th save.
Tigers 1, Swallows 0: At Koshien Stadium, Shota Murakami decided this one with his first career homer after a tense pitchers’ duel between Hanshin’s Junya Nishi and Yakult’s Keiji Takahashi.
Munetaka Murakami likely cost Yakult a run when he singled and then was caught stealing with Jose Osuna at the plate before his fourth-inning double off Nishi, who went seven scoreless innings, while Takahashi blanked Hanshin for six. Takahashi allowed three hits, two walks and a hit batsman, and Junya Nishi, walked and singled.
Carp 3, Dragons 2: At Nagoya Dome, Hiroshima rookie Shohei Mori (2-1) allowed a run over five innings. He led off the Carp’s third with a single off Hideaki Wakui (3-9) who gave up a two-out single to another former Lion, Shogo Akiyama, before Ryoma Nishikawa took him deep for his eighth home run.
Nominal closer Ryoji Kuribayashi was the first out of the Carp bullpen in a scoreless sixth, and Takuya Yasaki the last, for his 14th save.
Nobumasa Fukuda hit a solo pinch-hit homer for the Dragons, his first of the season.
Marines 3, Fighters 2: At Kitahiroshima Taxpayers Burden Field, Gregory Polanco, whose two-run homer rescued the Marines in their 8-7 extra-inning win Thursday, doubled in two runs, again in the eighth, to bring Lotte from a run down.
Atsuki Taneichi (6-3) struck out 12 over seven innings, followed by scoreless frames from Hirokazu Sawamura and rookie Rikuto Yokoyama, who earned his first big league save.
Chusei Mannami’s double scored Go Matsumoto with the first run. Lotte tied it on Hisanori Yasuda’s sixth homer only for Haruka Yamada to double and score on a Ryota Isobata single in the bottom of the fifth to put the Fighters in front.
Buffaloes 11, Lions 5: At Osaka Dome, Kotaro Kurebayashi tripled in two runs bring Orix from a run down in the and Leandro Cedeno made it 5-1 with a three-run home run, his third.
Tomoya Noguchi added a two-run double. Cedeno added a two-run single in a four-run sixth.
Eagles 5, Hawks 1: At Miyagi Stadium, Masaru Fuji (2-0) allowed a run over five innings, and Hideto Asamura hit a tie-breaking three-run homer off SoftBank’s Shuta Ishikawa (3-4).
His eighth-inning homer, his 15th, tied him with Nippon Ham’s Chusei Mannami for the PL lead.
