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NPB games, news of Sept. 16, 2019

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Well-prepared Marines grind down Lions

After a pair of embarrassing extra-inning walk-off losses due to poor play in their outfield, the Lotte Marines on Monday simply looked better prepared than the Seibu Lions as they salvaged the finale of their series at MetLife Dome with a 9-3 win.

Riding a high after taking over the Pacific League lead the day before and seeing their magic number to clinch a second-straight pennant drop to nine, the Lions simply could not keep up.

Ayumu Ishikawa (7-5), whose career went downhill after he was selected for Japan’s team to the 2017 World Baseball Classic, barely outpitched Lions starter Keisuke Honda, but with his teammates putting on a clinic in disciplined hitting, that’s all he needed to win his third-straight start.

Ishikawa allowed three runs over seven innings on the road against Japan’s No. 1 offense. He gave up eight hits and issued three walks while striking out seven.

The Lions opened the scoring in the second on back-to-back no-out singles by Takeya Nakamura and Shuta Tonosaki on a pair of bad pitches, and a two-run Hotaka Yamakawa double off a 0-1 fastball that was low and straight. But the right-hander got the next three Lions to chase out of the zone.

Ishikawa repeated the feat in the fourth, with three-straight strikeouts after Tonosaki led off with a double.

Keisuke Honda (6-6) gave the Lions a solid start, holding the visitors scoreless through four innings. With one out in the fifth, he hung a first-pitch slider and light-hitting Yudai Fujioka pulled it out to right for his second home run of the season.

The Marines had been having good at-bats against Honda and crushed him in the sixth by swinging at every pitch he threw in the strike zone.

Leonys Martin hammered a hanging 1-0 changeup for a leadoff single. Honda hung a first-pitch slider to Seiya Inoue who doubled to left. Katsuya Kakunaka loaded the bases with a walk in a super at-bat in which he laid off or spoiled tough pitches. Ikuhiro Kiyota, who saw 14 pitches in his first two at-bats against Honda, put a nice compact swing on an inside 1-1 fastball and smashed it past third to tie the game.

Tatsuhiro Tamura then put the visitors in front with a good swing on a first-pitch low-and-away slider to drive in two. Honda was yanked, but lefty Shogo Noda allowed both inherited runners to score and was charged with another.

Despite their defeat, the Hawks’ loss in Hokkaido dropped the Lions’ magic number to eight. The Lions have eight games remaining, the Hawks nine. This game marked the last time any of the PL’s top three teams will play each other during the regular season.

Game highlights are HERE.

Fighters 7, Hawks 2, 8 innings, rain

At Asahikawa, Hokkaido, Chihiro Kaneko (7-7) allowed a run through six innings, while Nippon Ham scored three off SoftBank starter Ariel Miranda (7-5) in 3-1/3 innings.

Game highlights are HERE.

Eagles 8, Buffaloes 2

At Kyocera Dome, Rakuten got to Andrew Albers (2-5) for four runs, three in the fifth inning, while Takayuki Kishi (7-7) worked seven innings to get the win against Orix. The victory kept the Eagles one game back of Lotte in the race for the PL’s final playoff spot.

Game highlights are HERE.

Central League

Tigers 2, Giants 1

At Tokyo Dome, Onelki Garcia (3-8) allowed a run over 5-1/3 innings and four relievers completed a five-hitter as Hanshin outlasted Yomiuri. Kyuji Fujikawa walked a batter in the ninth but converted his 12th straight save opportunity.

My recent interview with Fujikawa is HERE.

After the game, Tigers skipper Akihiro Yano said, “Strong relief pitching is our trademark, but we sure could use an insurance run sometimes.”

The Giants’ magic number to clinch the pennant dropped to four thanks to the DeNA BayStars’ loss in Nagoya.

Game highlights are HERE.

Dragons 8, BayStars 1

At Nagoya Dome, diminutive 19-year-old right-hander Takumi Yamamoto (3-3) threw seven scoreless innings as Chunichi clobbered DeNA in a bullpen day for the BayStars.

Swallows 6, Carp 4

At Mazda Stadium, 19-year-old Munetaka Murakami homered twice, bringing his record total for a teenager in Japan to 35 as Yakult hit four home runs in a win over Hiroshima’s best pitcher, Daichi Osera (11-9), who gave up five runs, four earned, over six innings.

Baseball, Free, News

NPB games, news of Sept. 4, 2019

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Wednesday saw lots of home runs, and a lot of big ones, three sayonara blasts, one of which was a grand slam, and the player’s 200th. The other grand slam was hit by Japan’s most proficient grand slam hitter, who extended his career record.

Pacific League

Hawks 5, Eagles 1

At Yafuoku Dome, Ariel Miranda (7-4) struck out Hideto Asamura and popped up Jabari Blash en route to pitching out of a first-inning bases-loaded jam and collecting the win as SoftBank beat down Rakuten in a four-home run salvo.

Akira Nakamura and Alfredo Despaigne each went deep in the first inning against Takahiro Norimoto (3-5), while Nobuhiro Matsuda added to the right-hander’s miseries in the fourth with a solo shot. Despaigne capped the scoring in the eighth with his 32nd home run of the season and his 150th in Japan.

Game highlights are HERE.

Lions 10, Buffaloes 2

At Hotto Motto Field Kobe, Shuta Tonosaki homered twice and Takeya Nakamura extended his Japan record for career grand slams to 19 with a five-RBI night as Seibu overturned an early 2-1 Orix lead. Nakamura also had a sacrifice fly, and his five RBIs tied him with teammate Hotaka Yamakawa for the PL lead with 108.

Daiki Enokida (4-2) allowed two runs on five hits over six innings. He struck out two without issuing a walk.

Game highlights are HERE.

Marines 4, Fighters 2

At Zozo Marine Stadium, Takayuki Kato held Lotte scoreless for five innings, but the hosts came back against Nippon Ham’s bullpen, tying it on an unearned run in the eighth and winning it when Tatsuhiro Tamura blasted a two-run sayonara homer off closer Ryo Akiyoshi in the ninth. The loss was the Fighters’ eighth straight.

Game highlights are HERE.

Central League

Dragons 8, Giants 4

At Shikishima Stadium, Tomoyuki Sugano (11-6) gave up four runs on five second-inning hits and Chunichi held on to beat Yomiuri. Four of the five hits Sugano gave up in the inning were misses up in the zone, while the other came from his failure to cover first base quickly enough.

After the game, Giants manager Tatsunori Hara revealed that something had happened to his nephew Sugano, but would not spell it out, saying only there had been an “accident.”

Hayato Sakamoto gave the Giants a first-inning led with his 34th home run after Sugano worked a 1-2-3 first, but the Giants never led again.

Dayan Viciedo fouled a ball of his left ankle and was taken to a hospital in Maebashi, where he was diagnosed with a contusion. He returned to the ballpark, where he was treated and said he expected to play Thursday.

“I can walk,” he said. “It’s a contusion, so I’ll be OK.”

Game highlights are HERE.

Swallows 11, Carp 7

At Jingu Stadium, Tetsuto Yamada’s 200th career home run was a big one, breaking a 7-7, ninth-inning tie with two outs and the bags juiced in Yakult’s walk-off win over Hiroshima.

Swallows rookie Munetaka Murakami overturned a 5-4 deficit in the sixth inning with a three-run home run. His 32nd homer of the year is the most ever by a player under 20 years old in Japan.

BayStars 7, Tigers 5, 10 innings

At Yokohama Stadium, each of DeNA’s big boppers, Neftali Soto, Jose Lopez and Yoshitomo Tsutugo had one of their team’s four home runs, with Tsutsugo’s 27th of the year ending it in the 10th against Hanshin. Soto’s 35 kept him one ahead of Yomiuri’s Hayato Sakamoto for the league lead.