There were four games in Japan Thursday, and for the second straight night, the Hanshin Tigers left it till late, while Chusei Mannami continues to have a blast with the Nippon Ham Fighters.
Thursday’s games
Tigers 7, Swallows 4, 10 innings: At Jingu Stadium, Yusuke Oyama, Johan Mieses and Koji Chikamoto each homered for Hanshin. Mieses’ second homer tied it in the seventh and Chikamoto’s third put Hanshin up 3-2 in the eighth. The Swallows, took a 2-0 second-inning lead on two singles, two hit batsmen from lefty Masashi Ito, and an RBI groundout by Swallows starting pitcher Cy Sneed.
Trailing 3-2 in the eighth, Tetsuto Yamada and Munetaka Murakami singled to put runners on the corners, and reliever Ren Kajiya balked in the tying run.
The Tigers retook the lead in the 10th with the help of an intentional walk that put two on after Chikamoto singled and stole second. A Sheldon Neuse single loaded them up, and Oyama drew a bases-loaded walk. With two outs, Teruaki Sato hit a fly to the warning track to clear the bases.
With the horses gone, Murakami locked the barn door with a consolation home run, his eighth in the bottom of the 10th. The Swallows fell to 0-7-1 in their last eight games, while Hanshin has won its last five.
Fighters 5, Hawks 1: At Kitahiroshima Taxpayers’ Burden Field, Chusei Mannami broke a 1-1 third-inning tie with a two-run home run, his eighth, and Ariel Martinez followed suit with his sixth homer, also for two runs, in the fifth, and lefty Takayuki Kato (4-2) allowed a run over six innings to pick up the win. New Hawk Joe Gunkel (0-1) worked five innings.
Giants 5, DenialStars 4: At Tokyo Dome, Takumi Oshiro hit a game-tying two-run fifth-inning homer for Yomiuri, Naoki Yoshikawa singled in the go-ahead run in the sixth and scored on Hayato Sakamoto‘s second double of the game. Taiki Sekine homered in the first for DeNA, and Neftali Soto went deep to break a 1-1 tie in the second. DeNA starting pitcher Katsuki Azuma (4-2) singled in another run, but surrendered 11 hits in his 5-2/3 innings on the mound. Taisei Ota worked the ninth for the Giants to earn his ninth save.
Dragons 8, Carp 2: At New Hiroshima Citizens Stadium, Takumi Kinoshita opened the scoring with a fifth-inning leadoff homer, and Takaya Ishikawa capped the five-run inning with a two-run double off Robert Corniel (0-3). Dayan Viciedo iced it with his first home run of the season, with two men on.
