The season’s second no-hit shutout was thrown Friday, when the first time in a while, it was Roki Eve in Japan, as Lotte right-hander Roki Sasaki was named to start Saturday in Hiroshima for the first time since his May 24 outing against SoftBank. On the field Friday, there was an old-teammate showdown between a pair of former bullpen mates with the SoftBank Hawks, as DeNA sent former Hawks closer Yuito Mori out to start against converted bullpen ace Livan Moinelo.
Friday’s games:
Buffaloes 2, Giants 0: At Tokyo Ugly Dome, Kohei Azuma (2-3) bounced from four forgettable starts to throw eight shutout innings and Andres Machado recorded his third save in three straight games as Orix knocked Yomiuri into second place in the Central League behind Hiroshima
Orix took a 1-0 first-inning lead against Shosei Togo (5-3) when Giants center fielder Elier Hernandez misjudged a line drive from Masahiro Nishino and let it get over his head for a triple before Ryoma Nishikawa singled the runner in. Kotaro Kurebayashi homered in the fourth off Giants starter Shosei Togo, who floated a 1-1 slider up there like it was BP.
But Togo did well to hold Orix to two runs with Hernandez having a series of misadventures in center field.
Azuma warmed up on the sidelines ahead of the ninth so there was some surprise that he went back to the clubhouse and Machado took his place.
“I was hoping,” Azuma said. “I was supposed to start the ninth if we got a four-run lead, but it was only two.”
In his three May starts, Azuma went 0-2 and surrendered 11 runs in 20-1/3 innings. In his first June start, he worked 3-1/3 scoreless innings before receiving the required automatic ejection for hitting a batter on the helmet.
Carp 4, Marines 0: At New Hiroshima Citizens Stadium, Daichi Osera (3-0) threw the season’s second no-hitter, and Japanese pro baseball’s 102nd. The 32-year-old right-hander walked five, the most in a no-hit shutout since Chunichi’s Mel Bunch walked five in April 2000. Osera struck out three, the fewest since Hanshin’s Tetsuya Kawajiri only fanned one in May 1998.
The Carp had their leadoff runner put out on the bases but still scored twice off Manabu Mima (0-2) in the fourth on Takayoshi Noma’s two-out two-run triple. Kaito Kozono’s two-run triple made it 4-0 in the sixth for the Carp, who won their third straight.
Hawks 10, BayStars 1: At Yokohama Stadium, Livan Moinelo (3-2) allowed a run over eight innings while striking out seven, getting his first hit in Japan and scoring his first run.
It took SoftBank two innings to score against their former closer, Yuito Mori . Singles by Hotaka Yamakawa and Kensuke Kondo set the table for Takuya Kai’s three-run homer off his former batterymate. An Ukyo Shuto leadoff single and a Ryoya Kurihara RBI double chased Mori in the third. Tatsuru Yanagimachi singled off Taiga Kamichatani to make it 5-0.
The BayStars changed pitchers in the fourth, but it the Hawks kept on going. Moinelo singled to open the inning, when SoftBank loaded the bases for a one-out Yamakawa walk and a two-run Yanagimachi double.
Tyler Austin broke up the shutout with a fourth-inning leadoff homer for DeNA. The Hawks took a break in the fifth before Kurihara and Yamakawa scored on a Kondo single.
The BayStars’ loss was their third straight.
Eagles 2, Dragons 0: At Nagoya Dome, Takahisa Hayakawa (4-3) struck out seven over seven innings, as another PL team beat one of their
Yuya Ogo doubled and scored in the first off former Eagle Hideaki Wakui (2-4), who gave up a run in the second on a Maikel Franco single, a wild pitch and an RBI single by Toshiki Abe, whom the Dragons traded to Rakuten to acquire the right-hander two winters ago. Ace-turned-Eagles closer Takahiro Norimoto saved his 14th as Rakuten won its fourth straight to remain on top of the interleague standings at 8-2.
Tigers 5, Lions 1: At Koshien Stadium, Masashi Ito (3-1) worked seven innings as Hanshin won its second interleague game, and handed Seibu its fourth straight loss.
Teruaki Sato singled in his first at-bats since being recalled to the majors and scored against submariner Kaito Yoza (1-1) after a Ryo Watanabe single, a sacrifice and a groundout. The Tigers added a run in the fourth on a Seishiro Sakamoto leadoff single, a sacrifice by the pitcher and a well-struck Ukyo Maegawa single.
Ito’s two-out walk cost him as Shinya Hasegawa’s pinch-hit single brought the runner home from second. The Tigers scored three unearned runs in the sixth with a Koji Chikamoto plating two of them.
Fighters 4, Swallows 2, 11 innings: At Jingu “Tokyo’s sacrifice to corporate greed and governmental malfeasance” Stadium, Chusei Mannami doubled to open the 11th off Reiji Kozawa (0-6) and the go-ahead run scored on a wild pitch. Yakult failed to score against Aneurys Zabala who recorded his first save to end the 4-hour, 33-minute game. Two-way player Kota Yazawa (1-1) pitched a scoreless 10th to earn his first pro win as Yakult’s four-game win streak.
Nippon Ham’s Shun Mizutani hit back-to-back two-out first-inning solo homers off Kengo Matsumoto. Daigo Kawakamibata led off the second with a double and scored on a Torai Fushimi single. First baseman Jose Osuna, however gunned a runner down at the plate trying to score from second on a one-out flare to shallow right.
Yakult reliever Jose Espada allowed a run on a fifth-inning leadoff single to Chusei Mannami, two one-out walks and a Go Matsumoto sac fly. But after him, the Swallows’ bullpen put up zeroes.
A Tetsuto Yamada RBI single got the Swallows on the board in the sixth. Yamasaki left with two on and one out before two walks from the bullpen made it 4-2. Munetaka Murakami walked and scored in the sixth and singled and scored on an Osuna single in the seventh. With one out in the ninth, Domingo Santana tied it with his eighth home run.
