Masato Morishita almost bid for the kind of no-hitter that Japanese baseball doesn’t count, but had to settle for being Hiroshima’s offensive sparkplug, Anderson Espinoza had an off-day and was still better than most. C.C. Mercedes and Neftali Soto led the Marines, the Seibu Lions extra-inning nightmare is finally over, and Seiya Hosokawa was outstripped by Munetaka Murakami for the CL home run lead but outslugged the Swallows’ big wheel to power a Chunichi comeback.
Saturday’s games
Buffaloes 3, Fighters 1: At Osaka UFO Dome, Anderson Espinoza (4-0) had an off day, but picked up the win after allowing a run on eight hits and a walk over six innings. His teammates turned two double plays behind him and scraped out three runs against Takayuki Kato (1-4) as Orix snapped its four-game losing streak and Espinoza’s ERA climbed to 0.55.
Carp 4, BayStars 1: At New Hiroshima Citizens Stadium, Hiroshima’s Masato Morishita (3-0) really earned this victory. He allowed an unearned run on two hits and a hit batsman over seven innings, went 3-for-3 with a double and scored the Carp’s first run when they tied it in the bottom of the seventh and iced it on pinch-hitting specialist Ryuhei Matsuyama‘s three-run home run.
DeNA opened the scoring in second inning on a failed throw, a failed catch, a groundout and a sacrifice fly, as Morishita allowed just two runners through 6-2/3 innings, on an error and a hit batsman. Anthony Kay (1-3) allowed pitched out of danger over the first three innings, and cruised through the next three before allowing back-to-back one-out singles and a walk in the seventh.
He left after his one-out walk loaded the bases in the seventh. Morishita scored when Takayoshi Noma beat the throw to first to stay out of an inning-ending double play before Matsuyama reached the seats.
Ryoji Kuribayashi secured his seventh save to snap Hiroshima’s four-game winless streak, and snapped DeNA’s three-game win streak.
Marines 2, Eagles 0: At Miyagi Stadium, C.C. Mercedes (1-0) spun six scoreless innings, and Neftali Soto broke the ice with his second Pacific League homer, a two-run eighth-inning shot off Rakuten’s Seiryu Uchi (1-2). Three Marines relievers retired nine of the last 10, with Naoya Masuda working around a ninth-inning leadoff single from Hideto Asamura to record his fourth save.
Lions 5, Hawks 4, 10 innings: At the domed stadium formerly known as “Prince,” Seibu ended its streak of extra-inning frustrations at 15 consecutive losing decisions when Shuta Tonosaki singled in the winning run with two outs in the 10th.
SoftBank manufactured a first-inning run against Tatsuya Imai on an Ukyo Shuto single, a stolen base, a sacrifice and a groundout, but the lead melted in Seibu’s three-run second, a rally that started after the leadoff runner singled and was caught stealing.
A throwing error and two singles tied it with the trailing runners moving up on the throw to the plate, allowing Yuji Kaneko to single in two against Livan Moinelo. Three fourth-inning singles off Imai in the fourth made it 3-2, and the Hawks re-tied it in the seventh on Hikaru Kawase‘s triple and Yuki Yanagita‘s sacrifice fly.
Seibu manager Kazuo Matsui then set up the Hawks for a run in the seventh by sacrificing the leadoff runner to second. SoftBank skipper Hiroki Kokubo, then did what most NPB managers do. He pulled in his outfield, allowing Sosuke Genda‘s two-out routine fly to go to the wall for an RBI triple instead of the third out.
Ryoya Kurihara, whose throwing error opened the door for the Lions in the third, singled to open SoftBank’s eighth. He was sacrificed to second and tied it 4-4 on a throwing error by Tonosaki at second.
Giants 2, Tigers 1, 10 innings: At Tokyo Ugly Dome, Naoki Yoshikawa‘s bases-loaded 10th-inning single won it, plating rookie Masaya Hagio, who had reached on a one-out walk as Yomiuri came from behind to win their second straight after the Giants tied it in the eighth on a one-out Yoshihiro Maru RBI single off Tigers closer Suguru Iwazaki.
The Tigers opened the scoring in the fourth on a Shota Morishita leadoff double and a two-out Sheldon Neuse single off Tomoyuki Sugano.
The Tigers got two runners on in the 10th against Alberto Baldonado (1-0), but one was picked off first and the other doubled off on a lineout.
Swallows 7, Dragons 7, 12 innings: At Jingu “Tokyo’s Sacrifice to Corporate Greed and Governmental Malfeasance” Stadium, Seiya Hosokawa drove in three runs with a pair of RBI doubles against Yakult’s bullpens, as Chunichi canceled out a four-run deficit.
Chunichi took a three-run second-inning lead after two were out on two well-hit singles and two flares off Cy Sneed. Yuki Okabayashi, who denied Domingo Santana of a two-run first-inning double with an inning-ending catch against the wall in center, got things started with a one-out double. A flare into shallow right put two on before Yohei Oshima’s two-out floater just got over third baseman Munetaka Murakami and rolled into foul territory for an RBI double. Kaito Muramatsu then smashed a two-run single.
The Swallows scored four in the home half, putting good swings on fat pitches from Yuya Yanagi. Tetsuto Yamada opened with a single, but things really got started after Sneed smashed one up the middle. Haruki Nishikawa‘s two-run double was followed by RBI singles from Kazuya Maruyama and Jose Osuna.
Maruyama doubled and scored on a Santana single to make it 5-3 in the fourth, and Murakami, after walking his first three times up, took over the CL home run lead with a two-run shot, his fourth in five games, his eighth of the year and the 199th of his career.
Chunichi scored twice in the seventh against Tomoya Hoshi, who issued a two-out walk and surrendered back-to-back booming doubles to Muramatsu and Seiya Hosokawa before scoring twice more in the ninth off Naofumi Kizawa. Hosokawa drove in Oshima with another RBI double, and Muramatsu scored on a Sho Nakata sacrifice fly to tie it.
