Sands blasts off again
At Tokyo’s Jingu Stadium, Jerry Sands belted his third home run of the season, doubled and drove in four runs for the Hanshin Tigers in an 8-2 win over the Yakult Swallows behind six scoreless innings from Joe Gunkel (1-0). Jefry Marte also singled in a run and homered for the Tigers.
In a game where both teams wore No. 73 in honor of the late Katsuya Nomura, who managed both clubs, Swallows rookie Yasunobu Okugawa (0-1) allowed three runs over five innings. He struck out five and walked one, although Nomura might have rolled over in his grave at the number of straight fastballs in the zone. Tetsuto Yamada hit his first homer of the season for the Swallows.
At Hiroshima’s Mazda Stadium, the Chunichi Dragons held the Hiroshima Carp to a 0-0 nine-inning tie as lefty Shinnosuke Ogasawara scattered three walks and five hits.
At Tokyo Dome, it was a case of players doing well against their old team for the third straight day as the Giants and BayStars drew 1-1. This time it was Kentaro Taira, acquired by the BayStars as free agent compensation for San Francisco Giants right-hander Shun Yamaguchi, who had the hot hand, throwing five perfect innings and left after six scoreless innings with stiffness in his right elbow, Sponichi Annex reported.
BayStars rookie Shugo Maki doubled in a first-inning run, but the Giants tied it on an RBI single by Takayuki Kajitani, who moved over from DeNA last winter as a free agent.
Hayakawa wins debut
At Sendai’s Rakuten Seimei Park, Lefty Takahisa Hayakawa (1-0) struck out eight over six innings for the Rakuten Eagles in their 5-0 win over the Nippon Ham Fighters. The Fighters continued the old-friend alert madness, by starting Takahide Ikeda (0-1), acquired from Rakuten in a March 3 trade.
Ikeda, who only pitched 42-2/3 innings in the Pacific League in 2018, was unscored upon in 10 spring innings for Nippon Ham before surrendering four runs, three earned, in his five-inning homecoming.
Hayakawa navigated a pair of bases-loaded situations, while Eagles catcher Hikaru Ito singled in two runs and homered.
The Eagles, who deactivated Masahiro Tanaka on Friday, sent reliever Alan Busenitz down with back stiffness on Sunday after he allowed three runs in the ninth inning, while veteran infielder Ginji Akaminai also was deactivated with a right wrist injury.
At Fukuoka’s PayPay Dome, the SoftBank Hawks walked off winners over the Lotte Marines for the second straight day, this time 6-5, again victimizing closer Naoya Masuda (0-2) as both teams surrendered two runs in the ninth.
Ageless utility man Keizo Kawashima delivered the game-winning two-run pinch-hit single for the Hawks with two outs and the bases loaded. The Hawks had pulled ahead on 4-3 on Alfredo Despaigne’s two-run eighth-inning homer only for Tsuyoshi Sugano to belt a two-out pinch-hit homer off Sho Iwasaki (1-0) in the top of the ninth.
Hawks lefty Tsuyoshi Wada allowed three runs, two earned, over 6-1/3 innings. The Marines’ top signing from last year’s draft – after they failed to win the rights to Hayakawa – Shota Suzuki walked six and struck out six and allowed one hit, a two-run Ryoya Kurihara home run.
At MetLife Dome outside Tokyo, Tomoya Mori hit a two-run homer and Katsunori Hirai (1-0) threw six scoreless innings for the Seibu Lions in a 5-1 win over the Orix Buffaloes. Lions reliever Reed Garrett allowed rookie Kotaro Kurebayashi’s first pro home run. Steven Moya went 2-for-4 for Orix, while Adam Jones singled in four trips to the plate.
