On Thursday, Gregory Polanco provided Lotte’s necessary ninth-inning caffeine for the second straight night and Yakult a bad case of déjà vu. Sachiya Yamasaki had a night to remember his high school heroics at Koshien Stadium and a Marines pitcher went under the knife.

I also wrote about how MLB is completely right to recognize the Negro Leagues as small “m” major leagues, but incorporating those great ballplayer’s stats alongside those of American and National league players represents the worst side of MLB, its major-league identity crisis.

Thursday’s games:

Fighters 6, Tigers 0: At Koshien Stadium, Sachiya Yamasaki, who was unable to relive his high school glory as a hitter at Koshien when he went hitless last year in the Japan Series with the Orix Buffaloes, struck out eight over seven innings and went 1-for-3, with a run and an RBI, and two relievers completed the four-hit shutout.

Nippon Ham took a four-run fourth-inning lead after an Ariel Martinez double and a Go Matsumoto single set the table against Yuki Nishi (2-2). Yamasaki (6-1), a former high school batting star, singled in the first run. Torai Fushimi squeezed in another and reached on the fielder’s choice ahead of Tatsuki Mizuno‘s two-run single. A Martinez single and a Matsumoto double set up a two-run fifth. New Fighters import Aneurys Zabala worked a scoreless ninth in his Japan debut.

As the slugging ace pitcher of Tokyo’s Nichidai Sanko high school, Yamasaki had a tournament record-tying13 hits while pitching his team to the semifinals of the 2010 national spring invitational at Koshien.