On a windy Friday afternoon, DeNA and Yakult came within one home run of tying an NPB record for the most in a game, while Lotte’s Roki Sasaki threw five hitless innings, and Orix’s rookie sensation had another solid outing.
After a day of hemming and hawing, I concluded that “DenialStars” goes best with DeNA, so thanks to those who contributed to finding a more fitting nickname for a team that has happily glossed over how a former Cy Young Award winner was available after 30 MLB teams ran from him like the plague.
Friday’s games
Swallows 10, DenialStars 9: At Jingu Stadium, Hideki Nagaoka‘s first home run of the season, a wind-assisted shot near the foul pole off closer Yasuaki Yamasaki (0-3), lifted Yakult past DeNA in an 11-homer slugfest.
For the Swallows, it continued a stretch of games decided by home runs after their three-game see-saw slugfest series against the Giants at Tokyo Dome.
Domingo Santana got it started in the second with a solo shot in what looked on paper like a duel between two of Japan’s best lefties, Yakult’s Keiji Takahashi and DeNA’s Shota Imanaga, although neither impressed.
Keita Sano tied it in the third with the first of his two home runs, and two-time CL home run leader Neftali Soto made it 3-1 with his first homer. Slumping Swallows cleanup hitter Munetaka Murakami blasted his second home run in two days, tying it 3-3 by hitting an outside pitch that only stayed in the park because it hit the netting high above the left-field stands.
Sano made it 6-3 in the fourth when he put a sweet swing on a high hanging changeup. Three solo homers, by Yakult’s Taiki Hamada, and DeNA’s Yota Kyoda and Shugo Maki made it 8-4, and Murakami’s third error in two days allowed DeNA extra insurance.
Swallows catcher Yuhei Nakamura homered to open the eighth off lefty Edwin Escobar, who left two on with no outs for Hiromu Ise. The right-hander got two big outs before Hamada knocked a three-run homer off the left-field foul pole. Ise got out of the inning by retiring Murakami with a man on, and DeNA seemed out of the woods.
Yamasaki got two outs before Jose Osuna reached on his third single, and Nagaoka just cleared the fence in right.
“The manager called out to me and said, ‘That was the wind.’ He didn’t praise me at all,” Nagaoka said. “I thought I got under it too much, but the wind did the job.”
Asked about the playing conditions, DeNA manager Daisuke Miura said no one should have been surprised that balls were flying, “Everyone knew it was windy.”
Swallows-DenialStars highlights
Dragons 8, Giants 3: At Nagoya Dome, second-chancer Seiya Hosokawa had three hits, including a two-run eighth-inning single that brought Chunichi from behind and opened the spigots for a six-run inning.
Takaya Ishikawa followed with a two-run jack and 26-year-old rookie Hiroki Fukunaga hit another two-run shot. The Giants, who ended Thursday’s game against Yakult with a home run, go their second in two at-bats when Taishi Hiraoka emulated his former Swallows teammates by leading off the game with a homer.
Hayato Sakamoto‘s pinch-hit single made it 2-0 in the fifth and Adam Walker followed with an RBI single that chased Shinnosuke Ogasawara. Shohei Kato made it a 3-2 game in the bottom of the inning with a two-run pinch-hit single.
Marines Hawks : At Chiba Marine Stadium, Roki Sasaki burned through his pitch count early, but threw some of the best fastballs I’ve seen from him in his career as he struck out 12 of the 17 batters he faced over five hitless innings in which Akira Nakamura reached twice, on a first-inning leadoff walk and a dropped third strike.
Shuta Ishikawa walked four, hit one and surrendered four doubles over seven-plus innings without allowing a run.
Buffaloes 6, Lions 0: At Osaka Dome, rookie Shumpeita Yamashita (3-0) struck out eight over six scoreless innings, lowering his ERA to 0.37, while the Buffaloes tagged Chihiro Sumida (1-3) for five fourth-inning runs.
Three straight singles loaded the bases for Marwin Gonzalez to double in two. Frank Schwindel singled in two more, and Yuma Mune singled in another with the seventh of the Buffaloes’ eight hits in the inning. Schwindel doubled in another run in the fifth.
Fighters 5, Eagles 2: At Kitahiroshima Taxpayers Burden Field, Masahiro Tanaka allowed a run over seven innings, and left with a 2-1 lead, but Nippon Ham scored four off Rakuten’s bullpen with Chusei Mannami‘s two-run eighth-inning double breaking a 2-2 tie.
Tigers 5, Carp 0: At New Hiroshima Citizens Stadium, Hanshin second-chancer Kotaro Otake (4-0) had his prototypical game, two strikeouts and no walks as he scattered five singles over seven scoreless innings, thanks to a big assist from Johan Mieses.
Playing his first major league game in Japan, Mieses made a good grab in right field for the second out in the fourth to rob Shogo Akiyama ahead of back-to-back singles from Ryan McBroom and Ryoma Nishikawa.
Hanshin took a four-run lead on two-run homers from Yusuke Oyama in the first and Teruaki Sato in the third before Mieses’ first Japan home run, a solo shot, in the sixth.
