Roki Sasaki pitched and won a different kind of game than the one’s we’re used to seeing from him, while Yoshinobu Yamamoto pitched like an old-school ace and Yuki Yanagita had a big game for the Hawks in what looks like it might be an exciting weekend in the Pacific League.

A few days after looking dead and buried, again, the Hanshin Tigers got a big start when they needed it, while the DeNA BayStars look unstoppable and the Yakult Swallows vulnerable.

Let’s get to the games shall we?

Friday’s games

BayStars 8, Carp 3: At Yokohama Stadium, Hiroki Minei’s three-run fourth-inning double overturned a 2-1 deficit before DeNA showed their offensive genes in a win that pulled them within five games of the first-place Swallows.