A typhoon is barreling toward Tokyo and northeastern Japan and resulted in three of Friday’s games being canceled, but all three Pacific League games on the schedule were played. Roki Sasaki made news with a 1-1/3-inning start, and after the Seibu Lions snapped his four-game home run streak on Tuesday, Hotaka Yamakawa made up for lost time with some old-time power at the world’s largest outdoor sauna.

Meanwhile, the Nippon Ham Fighters have decided that their home park outside Hiroshima will have its infield grass replaced with artificial turf next season, ostensibly while keeping the existing dirt and the natural grass outfield.

Thursday’s games

Fighters 6, Marines 1: At Kitahiroshima Taxpayers Burden Field, Roki Sasaki took a smash off his left ankle with one out in the second inning and was unable to resume pitching. Fighters lefty Takayuki Kato, on the other hand, got a six-run third-inning lead and hung in for eight innings to improve to 6-7. Sasaki left for treatment, returned to the mound and made some practice tosses, so the injury does not appear that serious.

Tatsuki Mizuno, one of the two Fighters who laid down beautiful suicide squeeze bunts the night before, went long in the bottom of the third with a two-run homer, his fourth. Ariel Martinez  singled in Go Matsumoto to make it 3-0 and Franmil Reyes hit his fourth home run in five games to make it 6-0. Takashi Ogino had three of Lotte’s nine hits and the Marines’ only extra-base hit, a seventh-inning RBI double. Lotte fell a full game back of Nippon Ham in third place.