Our first weekend’s worth of games wrapped up Sunday, when the Nippon Ham Fighters, Lotte Marines and Yomiuri Giants each completed series sweeps. Naoyuki Uwasawa made his Hawks debut only for his nemesis, Neftali Soto, to turn the game Lotte’s way, with Lotte’s go-ahead run scoring on a fluke play. But first, a word from our sponsor.
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Sunday’s games
Fighters 7, Lions 5: At the roofed stadium formerly known as Prince, one long streak ended and another kept rolling.
Nippon Ham opened the season with three straight wins, something no team in the franchise had accomplished since 1962, when the Toei Flyers went on to win the franchise’s first Japan Series. Yuki James Nomura was a wrecking ball, doubling in a first-inning run, hitting a three-run third-inning homer and a two-run shot in the fifth.
Franmil Reyes went 3-for-3 with two doubles, a walk, three runs and an eighth-inning leadoff single that led to the Fighters’ final run after he was pulled for a pinch-runner.
New Lion Tyler Nevin tied the game 1-1 in the first with a sac fly to deep right that Chusei Manami nearly made interesting with a picture-perfect throw to the plate. Shuta Tonosaki homered in the fourth for Seibu, whose starter, Kona Takahashi, suffered his 12th straight losing decision. Leandro Cedeno, who joined Seibu over the winter from Orix, went 2-for-4 with a two-run eighth-inning double.
The Fighters’ Drew VerHagen allowed two runs over five innings to earn the win.
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