Tsuyoshi Wada was solid against the Yomiuri Giants, getting big run support from light-hitting catcher Takuya Kai and paying the price for shaking Kai off against Kazuma Okamoto. Three first-year Fighters had a party at the expense of the Hanshin Tigers, a former Dragon scored the go-ahead run against his old club, and the Seibu Lions learned not to sleep at first base on unheralded Swallows catcher Yudai Koga.
Friday’s games
Hawks 5, Giants 1: At Fukuoka Dome, Takuya Kai homered and drove in four runs, 42-year-old Tsuyoshi Wada (5-1) left a 3-1 game with two out in the sixth and the bases loaded. Reliever Yuki Tsumori struck out Sho Nakata to end the inning, Kensuke Kondo homered in the seventh and Kai singled in another run in the eighth.
“For a long time now I’ve won whenever Takuya drove in a run for me, and so I didn’t want to end that,” Wada said. “I feel I owe him an apology for shaking him off on the ball Okamoto hit out.”
Wada, who missed four seasons of interleague play when he was in the States with the Orioles and the Cubs, but the win tied him with 43-year-old Masanori Ishikawa of the Swallows for the most career interleague wins with 27.
“It’s the kind of thing you get to if they let you pitch a long time,” Wada said.
Fighters 4, Eagles 0: At Kitahiroshima Taxpayers Burden Field, it was new Fighters day at the Hokkaido ballpark as Torai Fushimi, Ariel Martinez and Taiga Egoshi drove in runs for Nippon Ham, while Kenya Suzuki (6-2) and three relievers shut out the Central League leaders on seven hits and two walks.
Fushimi, who joined this year from Orix, singled in Go Matsumoto and Martinez in the second off rookie Ren Tomida (1-1), Martinez, who joined Nippon Ham’s catching pool this year from the Dragons, doubled in Chusei Mannami in the third and former Tiger Egoshi homered in the fourth.
Eagles 5, Dragons 4: At Miyagi Stadium, Hikaru Ota squeezed in former Dragon Toshiki Abe to break a 3-3 sixth-inning tie, and Yuki Matsui got his 10th save. Shinnosuke Ogasawara (4-3) gave up five runs, four earned, in 6-2/3 innings, leaving after Hideto Asamura had his third hit off him and scored on a Takero Okajima double off the lefty’s 131st pitch.
Carp 3, Marines 2: At Chiba Marine Stadium, Hiroshima’s Hiroki Tokoda (5-1) outpitched the remarkable Yuji Nishino (6-2), who allowed three runs on nine hits and a walk over 6-2/3 innings. Ryoma Nishikawa’s and Shogo Akiyama’s second-inning RBI singles made it 2-0. Yudai Fujioka doubled and scored to halve the deficit on Koki Yamaguchi’s fourth-inning single, but Takayoshi Noma, who singled and scored in the second, singled and scored in the seventh on another Nishikawa single.
The Marines’ Gregory Polanco brought in a run in the ninth on an infield single, but Takuya Yasaki recorded his eighth save.
The loss left Lotte in first place but in a virtual tie with Orix and SoftBank for the PL lead.
Lions 2, Swallows 1: At Seibu Dome, Seibu’s Shinya Hasegawa tied it 1-1 off Dillon Peters (2-2) in the second with his third home run, Shota Hiranuma followed with a single and scored after a sacrifice and a Sosuke Genda single. It was a good thing the Lions didn’t need any more runs since three of the base runners they did get were caught off first base for outs.
Reserve Swallows catcher Yudai Koga picked off Shuta Tonosaki to end the third and Hasegawa to end the fourth before David MacKinnon was caught in the sixth and tagged out trying to get to second. The only thing I’ve seen like it before was when former Lotte coach Len Sakata was brought in as an emergency catcher for the Orioles in the 10th inning and pitcher Tippy Martinez picked off three straight Blue Jays in 1983.
Tatsushi Masuda was dominant in the final inning for his ninth save.
Deniers 4, Buffaloes 2: At Kyocera Dome, DeNA’s starter allowed two runs over seven innings and his teammates came from behind with two unearned runs in a three-run sixth against rookie Shumpeits Yamashita (5-1), who allowed four runs on four hits and two walks over six innings while striking out seven.
