The kids, or at least Japan’s two biggest young stars, were alright Friday, when the Yakult Swallows and DeNA BayStars began their battle for Central League supremacy, while the third-place Orix Buffaloes and second-place Seibu Lions slugged began slugging it out.

Shall we get to it?

Friday’s games

Marines 2, Eagles 0: At Chiba Marine Stadium, Roki Sasaki (8-3) struck out eight over seven innings while walking two a week after the Eagles lit him up in Sendai. Takashi Ogino homered off Takayuki Kishi (7-8) homered in the third, and Hisanori Yasuda doubled in Seiya Inoue with an eighth-inning insurance run on his fourth hit, off Tomohiro Anraku. An unrepentant domestic abuser earned the save for Lotte.