The Nippon Ham Fighters treated their fans to another ninth-inning game of “Dude, where’s my base runner?” Kenta Ishida did it all for DeNA. Yakult needs more than just Munetaka Murakami, while I need a better picture of Shogo Sakakura than the one I snapped Tuesday in case I needed it for my blog.

Thursday’s games

Eagles 3, Fighters 2: At Kitahiroshima Taxpayers Burden Field, Rakuten’s Takayuki Kishi and Nippon Ham’s Takayuki Kato each allowed a run in the first, and another on a home run to leave the game tied 2-2.  Chusei Mannami threw a runner out at the plate to keep the Eagles from scoring the go-ahead run in the seventh.

Daichi Suzuki doubled with one out in the ninth to set up Hiroto Kobukata‘s RBI single, and as it did in Chiba a couple of weeks ago, a golden opportunity in the ninth opportunity vanished.

Ariel Martinez‘s 10th homer made it 2-1 in the third, and Yukiya Ito tied it for the Eagles with a solo shot off Kato in the sixth. In the bottom of the ninth, the Fighters put two on with no outs against closer Yuki Matsui, when the runner on first got greedy. On a deep fly out to right, the lead runner advanced to third, and the trailing runner, Ryota Isobata was out at second for a double play. Matsui then struck out Mannami on a 3-2 pitch out of the zone.

The win was Rakuten’s eighth straight, while the Fighters have dropped seven in a row, including six straight by one run.