Buffaloes un-cowed
A night after a good fightback to earn a tie in a game we would have expected the old Orix Buffaloes to boot, Daiki Tajima goes seven innings in a shutout win over the Lotte Marines that lifts the Buffaloes back into first place, thanks to the Rakuten Eagles failing to turn a strong outing from Masahiro Tanaka into a win.
Buffaloes 5, Marines 0
At Osaka’s Kyocera Dome, Daiki Tajima (5-4) allowed two walks and three singles while striking out seven over seven innings, and catcher Kenya Wakatsuki hit a three-run home run, his first, off Shota Suzuki (1-4) as Orix beat Lotte.
Fighters 3, Eagles 0
At Sendai’s Rakuten Seimei Park, a walk and two good swings gave Nippon Ham a 1-0 first-inning lead against Rakuten’s Masahiro Tanaka (3-5, 3.18), and Kensuke Kondo helped snuff out a seventh-inning rally with a diving catch in right for the second out with the potential tying run on second.
The Fighters didn’t make much good contact against Tanaka, who had one of his better starts. Chusei Mannami’s seventh-inning leadoff double was their best-struck ball off him, but he was gunned down trying to score from third on a one-out fly to medium-deep center.
Rookie right-hander Kazuaki Tateno (1-0) dodged four walks and three hits over five innings to earn his first career win, and Yuki James Nomura singled in two runs in the eighth against the Eagles’ pen.
Hawks 9, Lions 1
At Kitakyushu Municipal Stadium, SoftBank’s Nao Higashihama (2-0) scattered eight hits and a walk to allow just one run over seven innings, while his teammates took advantage of Kitakyushu’s cozy ballpark with three home runs, Nobuhiro Matsuda’s ninth, Ryoya Kurihara’s 10th and Takuya Kai’s eighth.
Seibu’s Katsunori Hirai (3-3) allowed seven runs, three earned, over four innings.
Carp 1, Giants 0
At Tokyo Dome, Hiroshima’s Takayoshi Noma broke up Shun Yamaguchi‘s bid for s a second career no-hitter with a one-out solo home run in the eighth inning. It was Noma’s first of the year.
Yamaguchi (1-1) went eight, allowing one hit, one walk and hit batsman while striking out 10 for Yomiuri. The Giants tried to steal a run in the first with manager Tatsunori Hara’s beloved delayed two-out delayed double steal with runners on the corners only for it to kill the inning with an out at the plate despite a terrible throw to second.
Allen Kuri (6-5) allowed six hits and three walks over 7-2/3 innings, Kyle Bird escaped a two-on, two-out jam in the eighth, and rookie Ryoji Kuribayashi recorded his 15th save with a 1-2-3 ninth.
Tigers 2, Swallows 2
At Koshien Stadium, Jefry Marte earned a tie for the Hanshin Tigers, singling in a first-inning run and tying it in the eighth inning with his 13th home run, off reliever Noboru Shimizu.
Munetaka Murakami regained the Japan home run lead with his 24th, tying the game 1-1 in the fourth against Raul Alcantara, who went 6-1/3 innings. The Swallows, who got six innings from Hirotoshi Takanashi, tied it against Japan Olympic team member Suguru Iwazaki in the eighth on a Jose Osuna single, a sacrifice and a Domingo Santana double.
BayStars 9, Dragons 4
At Tokyo’s Jingu Stadium, Tyler Austin and Neftali Soto each drove in two runs, Soto with a first-inning home run, his 13th, off Koji Fukutani (4-7) who coughed up seven runs over two innings. The win was DeNA’s fifth straight as they moved within two games of fourth-place Chunichi. Dayan Viciedo hit his 11th homer for the Dragons.
Starting pitchers
Pacific League
Eagles vs Fighters: Rakuten Seimei Park Miyagi 6 pm, 5 am EDT
Takayuki Kishi (3-5, 4.19) vs Hiromi Ito (5-4, 2.79)
Hawks vs Lions: PayPay Dome 6 pm, 5 am EDT
Shota Takeda (4-3, 2.45) vs Kona Takahashi (6-3, 3.57)
Central League
Giants vs Carp: Tokyo Dome 5:45 pm, 4:45 am EDT
Tomoyuki Sugano (2-4, 2.72) vs Koya Takahashi (2-3, 4.93)
Tigers vs Swallows: Koshien Stadium 6 pm, 5 am EDT
Joe Gunkel (6-0, 2.10) vs Yasunobu Okugawa (3-2, 4.60)
Active roster moves 6/30/2021
Deactivated players can be re-activated from 7/10
Central League
Activated
| Giants | P | 54 | Daisuke Naoe |
| Giants | IF | 32 | Taishi Hirooka |
| Swallows | P | 14 | Hirotoshi Takanashi |
| Swallows | OF | 25 | Domingo Santana |
Dectivated
| Giants | P | 45 | Seishu Hatake |
| Giants | OF | 36 | Shingo Ishikawa |
| BayStars | C | 10 | Yasutaka Tobashira |
| Swallows | IF | 3 | Naomichi Nishiura |
Pacific League
Activated
| Lions | P | 25 | Katsunori Hirai |
| Lions | P | 40 | Ichiro Tamura |
| Fighters | P | 33 | Kazuaki Tateno |
Dectivated
| Eagles | P | 41 | Yoshinao Kamata |
| Buffaloes | P | 61 | Tsubasa Sakakibara |
