Leonys Martin, whom some expected to be out for the season after fouling a pitch off his foot, came back on Tuesday and made an immediate impact, helping Lotte remain 1-1/2 games in the Pacific League behind Orix, who ran their unbeaten streak to nine games.
The Central League leaders, the Yakult Swallows, maintained their cushion over the second-place Hanshin Tigers by beating the third-place Yomiuri Giants. The Swallows improved to 7-10 with three ties against Yomiuri, whom they have outscored 103-101.
Tuesday’s games
Marines 2, Lions 0
At Chiba’s Zozo Marine Stadium, Leonys Martin, out with a fracture in his foot, returned to Lotte’s lineup well ahead of scheduled and, with his first swing doubled off the wall to bring Shogo Nakamura home from first with two outs in the first inning off Kona Takahashi (11-6, 3.45). A Koki Yamaguchi leadoff single two groundouts and a two-out Tatsuhiro Tamura singled made it 2-0 in the second after Ayumu Ishikawa (4-3, 4.42) escaped one-out two-on jeopardy.
Ishikawa walked three and allowed a double over six scoreless innings. Yuki Kuniyoshi and Yuki Karakawa worked the seventh and eighth before Naoya Masuda earned his 35th save to complete the combined one-hit shutout.
Buffaloes 9, Fighters 0
At Kyocera Dome Osaka, Orix’s Sachiya Yamasaki (7-9, 3.33) allowed five hits but no walks over seven innings, and two relievers completed the five-hit shutout as Orix improved to 8-0-1 over its last nine games.
Orix rookie Kotaro Kurebayashi’s 10th home run, with a man on in the first made it 2-0 against side-armer Ryusei Kawano (3-4, 2.31). Yuma Mune seventh home run made it 3-0 in the fifth, and Steven Moya’s three-run homer, his 11th, did the bulk of the damage in a four-run sixth, with a Mune sac fly completing the rally. Mune had another sac fly in the Buffaloes’ two-run eighth.
Yamasaki worked out of trouble in the second, when Nippon Ham put runners on the corners with no outs, but the lefty retired the next two batters and the Fighters ran into the third out trying a delayed steal against a pitchout.
Hawks 7, Eagles 7
At Fukuoka’s PayPay Dome, Richard Sunagawa’s sixth home run, off reliever Tomohito Sakai, brought SoftBank from a run down in the eighth as the Hawks salvaged a tie after blowing an early three-run lead in their fight for third place and the Pacific League’s final playoff spot.
Hideto Asamura’s 15th homer made it 1-0 in the first off Nao Higashihama (3-3, 4.09), but Akira Nakamura’s fifth home run, a two-out first-inning grand slam off rookie lefty Takahisa Hayakawa (9-6, 3.88) brought SoftBank from behind.
Rakuten chased Higashihama in the fifth, when Tsuyoshi Yamasaki led off with a double, Takero Okajima singled and singles by Asamura and Hiroaki Shimauchi made it a one-run game. Lefty Yuto Furuya saved the Hawk’s bacon, getting all three outs with two runners on.
Yuki Yanagita, who singled and scored in the first, did so again in the fifth, on a two-out Ryoya Kurihara single. Rakuten’s Yoshiaki Watanabe homered to make it a 5-4 game in the sixth.
Hawks right-hander Sho Iwasaki entered in the seventh with one out and retired one batter before allowing Watanabe’s third single and a walk, and two-out game-tying RBI double to Yamasaki that Taisei Makhihara dived for but just missed. Hiroshi Kaino entered and gave up a two-run Okajima single.
Kurihara homered, his 19th, off Naoto Nishiguchi in the bottom of the seventh, to trim SoftBank’s deficit, and Sunagawa tied it in the eighth. Yuito Mori worked a scoreless ninth for the Hawks, and Sung Chia-hao stranded two in the ninth to clinch the draw.
Swallows 3, Giants 2
At Tokyo’s Jingu Stadium, Yakult broke the ice against Yuki Takahashi (10-6, 3.07) in the third on two singles and a groundout, when Hayato Sakamoto dived to rob Munetaka Murakami of a single and Yoshihiro Maru made a good catch in center to defuse what might have been a big inning.
Naomichi Nishiura’s fourth home run and Domingo Santana’s 14th staked Yasuhiro Ogawa (8-5, 4.09) to a 3-0 lead in the fourth before Yomiuri came back with single runs in the fifth and sixth. Maru doubled and scored on a Takumi Oshiro single in the fifth and Sakamoto doubled home Akihiro Wakabayashi in the sixth.
Ogawa struck out six without issuing a walk, Ryuta Kono in the seventh and Noboru Shimizu in the eighth each worked around a single with the help of two strikeouts. Scott McGough walked two with one out, but managed his 25th save.
Tigers 5, BayStars 2
At Yokohama Stadium, Hanshin’s Koyo Aoyagi (11-5, 2.69) allowed two runs over six innings, DeNA’s Yuya Sakamoto (4-5, 5.12) surrendered four first-inning runs and another in the third on Yusuke Oyama’s 17th homer. Masaki Oyokawa, Suguru Iwazaki and Robert Suarez, who got his 37th save, closed it out.
Dragons 4, Carp 3
At Vantelin Dome Nagoya, RBI singles by Yohei Oshima and Dayan Viciedo made it 3-0 in the third against Hiroki Tokoda, which looked like a solid position with Yuya Yanagi on the mound, but Hiroshima tied it up against the CL RBI leader on RBI singles by Tsubasa Aizawa in the fourth, rookie Yuki Ugusa in the fifth and Seiya Suzuki, off the bench, in the seventh.
With the game tied in the ninth after a scoreless inning by closer Raidel Martinez (1-3), the Dragons faced, not rookie closer Ryoji Kuribayashi but, Yasunori Kikuchi (2-1) loaded the bases on a single and two walks, one intentional, before walking Shuhei Takahashi with the winning run.
Wednesday’s starting pitchers
Marines vs Lions: Zozo Marine Stadium 5:45 pm, 4:45 am EDT
Tokito Kawamura (3-0, 3.82) vs Keisuke Honda (0-2, 4.35)
Buffaloes vs Fighters: Kyocera Dome (Osaka) 6 pm, 5 am EDT
Soichiro Yamazaki (1-2, 4.60) vs Naoyuki Uwasawa (10-6, 2.96)
Hawks vs Eagles: PayPay Dome 6 pm, 5 am EDT
Nick Martinez (9-3, 1.66) vs Ryota Takinaka (8-4, 3.72)
Swallows vs Giants: Jingu Stadium 6 pm, 5 am EDT
Cy Sneed (4-2, 3.84) vs C.C. Mercedes (7-3, 3.59)
BayStars vs Tigers: Yokohama Stadium 5:45 pm, 4:45 am EDT
Shinichi Onuki (6-5, 4.42) vs Yuki Nishi (5-9, 3.84)
Dragons vs Carp: Vantelin Dome (Nagoya) 6 pm, 5 am EDT
Takahiro Matsuba (6-3, 2.66) vs Allen Kuri (10-7, 4.21)
Active roster moves 10/5/2021
Deactivated players can be re-activated from 10/15
Central League
Activated
| Giants | OF | 39 | Soichiro Tateoka |
| BayStars | P | 20 | Yuya Sakamoto |
| Carp | P | 42 | Kyle Bird |
| Carp | OF | 38 | Koki Ugusa |
| Swallows | C | 33 | Soma Uchiyama |
Dectivated
| Giants | P | 21 | Shoichi Inoh |
Pacific League
Activated
| Hawks | P | 16 | Nao Higashihama |
| Marines | P | 49 | Fumiya Motomae |
| Marines | OF | 79 | Leonys Martin |
| Eagles | IF | 30 | Toshitake Yokoo |
| Eagles | IF | 33 | Ginji Akaminai |
Dectivated
| Marines | IF | 36 | Tetsuya Kokubo |
