On Thursday in Japan, the CL finished off their home series with four wins ahead of their final interleague home sets over the weekend. Two starting pitchers made early injury exits, and for the third straight day critical runs scored because a manager brought his outfield in with two outs and a runner on second.

Thursday’s games:

Eagles 4, Tigers 1: At Koshien Stadium, Rakuten’s Masaru Fujii (4-1) struck out seven while allowing a run on three hits and a walk, while Daichi Suzuki singled in two runs and scored another as Rakuten moved to the top of the interleague standings with a sweep of the defending Central League champions.

Yuki Nishi (2-3) issued a first-inning leadoff walk, and Rakuten took a 2-0 lead on a Ryosuke Tatsumi double and Suzuki’s RBI single. The Tigers got a run back on a Ryotaro Umeno double and a Yuki Nishi single, but the Eagles added on in the fourth. Suzuki led off the fourth with a single and scored when Nishi fumbled a two-out batted ball and then made a wild throw for two errors on the play.

Sung Chia-hao retired both batters he faced and Shoten Suzuki stood in for closer Takahiro Norimoto in the ninth against the heart of the Hanshin order to earn his first save.

Carp 3, Fighters 1: At New Hiroshima Citizens Stadium, Shota Suekane hit a two-run first-inning homer off submariner Kenya Suzuki (1-2), and Allen Kuri (2-4) allowed a seventh inning run before the bullpen took over.

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