Kohei Arihara returned to the mound in Fukuoka on Tuesday when Japan’s two leagues split their six interleague games, and after a rough start, last year’s league champs moved to the top two spots in the interleague standings.
Tuesday’s games
Dragons 2, Lions 1: At the stadium where Babe Ruth once played in lovely Omiya Park, Seibu submariner Kaito Yoza (0-2) threw one of his better games as a pro, striking out six while allowing two runs over seven innings. He couldn’t, however, pitch out of trouble in the fifth, surrendering a pair of two-out hits as Yuki Okabayashi singled in the game’s first run and scored on a Seiya Hosokawa double. Raidel Martinez recorded his CL-leading 14th save for the Dragons.
Carp 3, Fighters 2: At Kitahiroshima Taxpayers’ Burden Field, in a city founded by emigres from Hiroshima next to Sapporo, the ball club from the original Hiroshima came from a run down in the eighth on RBI singles by Ryoma Nishikawa and pinch-hitter Ryuhei Matsuyama.
Closer Ryoji Kuribayashi, who has been in middle relief since coming back from fitness issues survived a one-out sixth-inning double and a walk to earn his first career win and improve to 1-5, while Takuya Yasaki earned his sixth save.
Eagles 4, Tigers 1: At Miyagi Stadium, Tigers rookie Shoki Murakami (5-2) suffered his first loss in nearly a month, allowing four runs in an eight-inning complete-game defeat. Takumu Nakano got the CL leaders the lead when he tripled in the first and scored against Takahiro Norimoto (2-4) on a Yusuke Oyama single, but Rakuten grabbed the lead for good in the second.
No. 9 hitter, catcher Hikaru Ota’s two-out bases-loaded single made it 2-1, and after Daichi Suzuki doubled to lead off the Eagles’ fourth, Ota doubled him home. Ryosuke Tatsumi homered off Murakami in the eighth to complete the scoring. Norimoto worked six innings, and closer Yuki Matsui earned his ninth save.
Buffaloes 2, Giants 1: At Osaka Dome, Yasunobu Yamamoto (5-2) went eight innings, struck out six, allowed a run on four hits and no walks, and Tomoya Mori doubled in two third-inning runs as the Buffaloes moved to the top of the interleague standings at 5-2. Sho Nakata‘s fourth-inning single made it a one-run game. And though the Giants bullpen retired 16 of the last 17 batters, Yamamoto left them no way back into the game as Orix improved to 5-2 in interleague.
Swallows 10, Marines 3: At Chiba Marine Stadium, Yasuhiro Ogawa (3-5) allowed three runs over six innings in the wind and rain, and Domingo Santana‘s RBI double capped a two-run fourth inning against Manabu Mima (0-4). Gregory Polanco‘s seventh homer made it 2-1 in the bottom of the inning and went 3-for-4 after striking out his first time up.
Two hits, two walks and two sacrifice flies in the bottom of the sixth put the Marines on top briefly, but reserve Swallows catcher Soma Uchiyama, who was in center field for this one, singled in two runs in the seventh, Santana hit a two-run homer in the eighth, his sixth, and Yakult iced it with a four-run ninth in the Swallows’ fourth-straight win.
Hawks 2, Deniers 1: At Fukuoka Dome, Kohei Arihara made his Hawks debut, allowing an unearned run on five hits and two walks over 6-2/3 innings. DeNA’s Shota Imanaga allowed one run on one hit, Kenta Imamiya‘s fourth-inning solo homer, while striking out eight and walking two over eight innings.
The Hawks survived a scare in the seventh, but Yuki Matsumoto and Livan Moinelo (2-0) each struck out three, and SoftBank scored off Hiromu Ise (2-1) in the ninth. Imamiya singled, Kensuke Kondo walked and pinch-runner Ukyo Shuto scored on a Taisei Makihara sayonara double.
