Thursday, the Hawks and Eagles wheeled out their elder statesmen starting pitchers, Shosei Togo was unable to repeat his marathon heroics from a week earlier, while
Thursday’s games
Tigers 5, Giants 2: At Tokyo Ugly Dome, Shosei Togo (10-3) was unable to protect a late lead. A week after he threw 149 pitches in a 2-1 complete-game win over Yakult, Togo surrendered three seventh-inning runs.
Hisayoshi Chono doubled and scored on a double play to put Yomiuri up 1-0 in the third against Hiroto Saiki (6-5), who allowed two runs over 7-1/3 innings.
A week ago, Togo allowed a run through eight innings on 127 pitches, before putting the tying and go-ahead runners on base with one out and with 141 pitches on his odometer but still holding off the Swallows off for the complete-game victory.
Togo took a shutout into the seventh inning on Thursday having thrown 108 pitches. He threw a straight 1-2 fastball belt high and away and Sheldon Neuse doubled off the top of the wall. Togo then tried to make a tough play on a high hopper to the mound but failed to get the lead runner, putting two on with no outs after his 116th pitch.
The Tigers tied it when first baseman Sho Nakata booted a pickoff throw. Back-to-back strikeouts got Togo to two outs and 124 pitches. Like Neuse, Chikamoto fell behind before getting a straight 2-2 fastball on the inside corner that he drilled well back into the right-field stands that caused manager Tatsunori Hara to pull the plug on his starter after 129 pitches.
Hayato Sakamoto made it a 3-2 game leading off the Giants’ eighth by launching Saiki’s 99th pitch for a home run. Saiki left with one out and two one, but Ren Kajiya struck out Nakata with the tying run on third before Hiroya Shimamoto got the third out to preserve the lead.
Cancer survivor Fumihito Haraguchi lessened the suspense with a pinch-hit two-run homer in the ninth, and Kyle Keller earned his first save of the season.
Continue reading NPB news: Aug. 10, 2023