Masahiro Tanaka won his 196^th big league game in his season’s longest outing, Kazuma Okamoto mashed, and if Yomiuri Giants fans are lucky, Shosei Togo will show no ill effects from his long night on the mound, while Taiga Hirasawa showed that reports of his professional demise are still premature.

We have a report on Dragons pitcher Humberto Mejia’s injury, while Japan’s players union wants to stop teams from suppressing service time by doing the Senga shuffle.

Thursday’s games

Eagles 9, Buffaloes 1: At Osaka Flying Saucer Dome, Masahiro Tanaka (6-6) got an early lead and held Orix to a run over eight innings. It wasn’t vintage Tanaka, but a finesse gem, in which he located, changed speeds and, striking out just three, but not giving up much real contact. Still, it was a vast improvement over his July starts, when he twice gave up over seven runs and didn’t go five innings.

Jacob Waguespack (3-5), making an emergency start after Daiki Tajima developed felt a forearm strain — one symptom of a serious elbow strain, allowed two runs in the first and two more in the third. When he came out, the Eagles set fire to rookie Atsuki Kogita, scoring five runs off him in three innings.

Kazuki Murabayashi went 3-for-5 for the Eagles, scoring twice and hitting a three-run homer.