On Thursday, we had three pitching duels, including one mind-blowing experience in Nagoya, and a pair of knock-down drag-outs.
Thursday’s games
Buffaloes 3, Tigers 2: At Koshien Stadium, Yuma Tongu hit a game-tying ninth-inning homer and 2021 PL home champ Yutaro Sugimoto completed the comeback with a mammoth shot, his 10th, off Atsuki Yuasa (0-2).
Tongu singled in the game’s first run off Tigers starter Masashi Ito in the fourth, only for Orix’s Taisuke Yamaoka to allow a run on no-out singles to Yusuke Oyama and Ukyo Maegawa and an error by center fielder Keita Nakagawa. Ito then singled in the go-ahead run and kept the Buffaloes off the scoreboard until he left after seven.
The Yakult Swallows, 0-12-1 in their last 13 games, did a little lineup shuffle Thursday, putting slugging second baseman Tetsuto Yamada into the leadoff spot and putting ace pinch-hitter Shingo Kawabata in the No. 3 hole as the season’s first interleague series wrapped up.
Fighters 5, Swallows 2: At Kitahiroshima Taxpayers’ Burden Field, Shingo Kawabata was pushed into the starting lineup as the No. 3 hitter and had three hits that led to runs. A first-inning error and a Kawabata infield single set the table for Munetaka Murakami‘s RBI single off Takayuki Kato (4-3).
Kawabata singled again in the third, before Murakami hit his 10th homer to make it 3-0 on a pitch and a swing that really had no business producing a home run. Kawabata singled in another run in the seventh, and Cy Sneed (4-2) struck out six over seven innings.
