On Thursday in Japan, the CL finished off their home series with four wins ahead of their final interleague home sets over the weekend. Two starting pitchers made early injury exits, and for the third straight day critical runs scored because a manager brought his outfield in with two outs and a runner on second.
Thursday’s games:
Eagles 4, Tigers 1: At Koshien Stadium, Rakuten’s Masaru Fujii (4-1) struck out seven while allowing a run on three hits and a walk, while Daichi Suzuki singled in two runs and scored another as Rakuten moved to the top of the interleague standings with a sweep of the defending Central League champions.
Yuki Nishi (2-3) issued a first-inning leadoff walk, and Rakuten took a 2-0 lead on a Ryosuke Tatsumi double and Suzuki’s RBI single. The Tigers got a run back on a Ryotaro Umeno double and a Yuki Nishi single, but the Eagles added on in the fourth. Suzuki led off the fourth with a single and scored when Nishi fumbled a two-out batted ball and then made a wild throw for two errors on the play.
Sung Chia-hao retired both batters he faced and Shoten Suzuki stood in for closer Takahiro Norimoto in the ninth against the heart of the Hanshin order to earn his first save.
Carp 3, Fighters 1: At New Hiroshima Citizens Stadium, Shota Suekane hit a two-run first-inning homer off submariner Kenya Suzuki (1-2), and Allen Kuri (2-4) allowed a seventh inning run before the bullpen took over.
Shogo Akiyama opened Hiroshima’s first with a single and Suekane hit the first pitch he saw from Kenya Suzuki out for his fifth home run. Singles by Masaya Yano and reserve catcher Tomoki Ishihara, and a Kuri sacrifice set up Akiyama’s second-inning sacrifice fly. A seventh-inning Tatsuki Mizuno leadoff triple and a Shun Mizutani sacrifice fly made it 3-1 Carp.
Setup man Sotaro Shimauchi struck out two in the eighth to work around a leadoff double and Ryoji Kuribayashi stranded a runner in the ninth to notch his 16th save.
Dragons 3, Hawks 0: At Nagoya Dome, five Chunichi pitchers scattered seven hits and two walks and Dayan Viciedo homered as the Dragons snapped SoftBank’s five-game win streak and knocked the Hawks from the top of the interleague table.
Reserve Hawks outfielder Naoki Sato robbed Alex Dickerson of a two-out two-run double in the first, but Nao Higashihama left after the third inning, when a batted ball struck him in the back. Shuta Ishikawa (2-1) stepped into the breach for the Hawks, and Viciedo stepped into the right-hander’s second pitch for his first home run of the season. Reserve Dragons catcher Takuma Kato’s two-out eighth-inning routine-fly double against SoftBank’s drawn-in outfield put the game on ice for closer Raidel Martinez to apply the coup de grace with his 18th save.
Yuya Yanagi (4-3) was yanked with two outs and a runner on first in the sixth. Kento Fujishima surrendered a single that left runners on the corners, and escaped by the skin of his teeth when a bullet off the bat of Kensuke Kondo was caught by Viciedo at first to prevent a two-run double.
Buffaloes 3, BayStars 1: At Yokohama Stadium, Ryoma Nishikawa went 3-for-4 with two RBIs as Orix’s bullpen beat DeNA’s, although the BayStars’ bullpen game was not intentional.
Shugo Maki singled and scored on a two-out first-inning Yoshitomo Tsutsugo triple off the wall against Taito Takashima, who was done after four innings. Nishikawa singled in Masahiro Nishino in the sixth to tie it against the BayStars’ bullpen, starter Kenta Ishida having been pulled after a 13-pitch 1-2-3 first.
“He had a left-shoulder ‘accident,'” DeNA manager Daisuke Miura said without further explanation. Ishida said he felt discomfort in the shoulder.
Ryo Ota walked, and singled and scored the go-ahead run in the eighth on a Nishikawa double.
Andres Machado worked a 1-2-3 ninth against the middle of the DeNA lineup for his fifth save.
Giants 7, Marines 4: At Tokyo Ugly Dome, Takumi Oshiro homered and drove in four runs, while Soichiro Tateoka scored three and drove in one as CL-leading Yomiuri won its rubber match with Lotte.
Yomiuri opened the scoring in a three-run second off Yuji Nishino (4-4). A one-out walk, a Tateoka single and Oshiro’s first home run got the Giants rolling. Tateoka opened the fourth by reaching on an error, stole second and scored on an Oshiro single. Lotte’s third pitcher, Keisuke Sawada, surrendered three runs in the sixth on a walk and four singles, with Tateoka singling a run and scoring his third.
The Marines chased Haruto Inoue (2-3) in the seventh. Atsuki Tomosugi‘s two-out single left two on for the bullpen. Another single and a three-run Neftali Soto double in the only sign of life from Lotte, who lost two of three after Alberto Baldonado recorded his sixth save.
Swallows 3, Lions 1: At Jingu “Tokyo’s sacrifice to corporate greed and governmental malfeasance” Stadium, Keiji Takahashi (2-2) struck out 10 over seven innings, Hiroki Onishi worked a scoreless eighth and Kazuto Taguchi, who was banished after allowing a run in his first save opportunity of the season, worked a 1-2-3 ninth for his first save.
Seibu lefty Shinya Sugai (0-1) survived two first-inning walks in his major league debut, but two more in the second, in conjunction with singles by Takahashi and Kazuya Maruyama got the Swallows one run while leaving five on base through two frames. Yakult’s Tetsuto Yamada hit a third-inning solo homer. Seibu scored off Takahashi in the seventh, on Kakeru Yamanobe‘s leadoff double, two walks and a groundout. Jose Osuna singled in Munetaka Murakami with an eighth-inning insurance run as Yakult won its fourth straight.
