Japanese pro baseball had one elimination game as its two leagues’ Foreplay Series Final Stages reached Game 3 in and around Osaka with the Hanshin Tigers holding a 3-0 lead over the Hiroshima Carp, and the Orix Buffaloes leading the Lotte Marines 2-1.
Friday’s games
Buffaloes 2, Marines 0: At Osaka UFO Dome, Yutaro Sugimoto saved at least a run in the outfield and set up the game’s first run with a hustling eighth-inning leadoff double as the Orix Buffaloes moved to within one win or one tie of their third-straight Japan Series.
Lotte manager Masato Yoshii opted for a bullpen game to try and even the series at 2-2. Orix loaded the bases with two outs in the first against Hirokazu Sawamura and in the second against Shunsuke Nakamori to no avail, while rookie Kohei Azuma retired seven straight batters after two had reached in the first with one out.
Nakamori was able to get through three innings without any more difficulty, and no-out singles by Koki Yamaguchi and Toshiya Sato put the heat on Azuma in the fifth. A bunt moved the runnners over, but two short flies ended the inning, the second, caught on a diving effort by the lumbering Sugimoto in left as the lucky Lotte Marines mojo failed to materialize for the first time in the series.
The Marines had the mojo on defense, however. Yuki Kuniyoshi, Lotte’s third pitcher, saved a run in the fifth by snaring a two-out liner headed for center with runners on the corners. Kuniyoshi had a stress-free sixth, and Taisuke Yamaoka, who blew a one-run save opportunity on Thursday, came out to pitch the top of the seventh for Orix and worked around a one-out hit batsman.
After a scoreless eighth inning from Buffaloes Yuki Udagawa, Sugimoto hustled to a leadoff double against new reliever Takahiro Nishimura, and pinch-runner Yuya Oda scored on a two-out single by Kenya Wakatsuki, who beat the throw home on a pinch-hit double from Yuma Tongu.
Yoshihisa Hirano, who saved Wednesday’s wild Game 1, stranded a runner in the ninth to extend his record as the oldest pitcher to record a postseason save in Japan.
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