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Darvish, Fighters show why the PL is headed for fantastic finish
Nippon Ham Fighters ace Yu Darvish wasn’t dealing his best stuff, but he kept the Rakuten Eagles down on Saturday night.
Darvish (14-3) yielded seven hits while walking none and fanning eight over seven innings of a 6-3 win over Rakuten.
Micah Hauffpauir went deep for the second day in a row and Atsunori Inaba drove in two for the Fighters, who moved to within four games of first-place SoftBank.
Darvish said he struggled in the humid conditions.
“All my pitches were up,” told Hochi Sports.
But the righty allowed the first three runs of the game, but the Fighters rallied for five in the fifth inning. Yang Zhong-sho put them ahead with an RBI single.
BUFFALOES 1, MARINES 1
Orix used an RBI double from Aarom Baldiris in the seventh inning to even the score with Lotte and that’s the way its stayed in 10 innings of play and the 210-minute rule at The Q.
HAWKS 1, LIONS 1
Yuichi Honda’s RBI groundout in the sixth got visiting SoftBank even and the energy rule ended play after 10 innings against Seibu.
CENTRAL LEAGUE
DRAGONS 7, BAYSTARS 6
Ryosuke Hirata got Chunichi even with an eighth-inning two-run single and Hidenori Kuramoto’s squeeze completed a comeback from five runs down in a victory over Yokohama at Nagoya Dome.
Takuya Asao came on in the ninth and surrendered a run before notching his fifth save.
GIANTS 5, CARP 2
A night after a multi-hit game that included a homer, Michihiro Ogasawara doubled and singled to drive in three as Yomiuri earned its season-high fourth straight win by topping Hiroshima at The Zoom.
Ogasawara, the sleeping Giant who is still hitting just .230, had his third straight game with an RBI, and Shun Tono (4-8) limited the Carp to two runs on four hits and two walks over eight frames for his first win as a starter in two months. The Giants moved into third place for the first time since June 26 with the win.
TIGERS 6, SWALLOWS 1
Takashi Toritani drove in two first-inning runs and Takahiro Arai had three hits and an RBI as host Hanshin topped front-running Yakult for the second straight night.
Second-year import Randy Messenger (8-2) tossed a four-hitter, walking two and fanning seven, for his first complete game in Japan.
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Darvish, Fighters show why the PL is headed for fantastic finish
Nippon Ham Fighters ace Yu Darvish wasn’t dealing his best stuff, but he kept the Rakuten Eagles down on Saturday night.
Darvish (14-3) yielded seven hits while walking none and fanning eight over seven innings of a 6-3 win over Rakuten.
Micah Hauffpauir went deep for the second day in a row and Atsunori Inaba drove in two for the Fighters, who moved to within four games of first-place SoftBank.
Darvish said he struggled in the humid conditions.
“All my pitches were up,” told Hochi Sports.
But the righty allowed the first three runs of the game, but the Fighters rallied for five in the fifth inning. Yang Zhong-sho put them ahead with an RBI single.
BUFFALOES 1, MARINES 1
Orix used an RBI double from Aarom Baldiris in the seventh inning to even the score with Lotte and that’s the way its stayed in 10 innings of play and the 210-minute rule at The Q.
HAWKS 1, LIONS 1
Yuichi Honda’s RBI groundout in the sixth got visiting SoftBank even and the energy rule ended play after 10 innings against Seibu.
CENTRAL LEAGUE
DRAGONS 7, BAYSTARS 6
Ryosuke Hirata got Chunichi even with an eighth-inning two-run single and Hidenori Kuramoto’s squeeze completed a comeback from five runs down in a victory over Yokohama at Nagoya Dome.
Takuya Asao came on in the ninth and surrendered a run before notching his fifth save.
GIANTS 5, CARP 2
A night after a multi-hit game that included a homer, Michihiro Ogasawara doubled and singled to drive in three as Yomiuri earned its season-high fourth straight win by topping Hiroshima at The Zoom.
Ogasawara, the sleeping Giant who is still hitting just .230, had his third straight game with an RBI, and Shun Tono (4-8) limited the Carp to two runs on four hits and two walks over eight frames for his first win as a starter in two months. The Giants moved into third place for the first time since June 26 with the win.
TIGERS 6, SWALLOWS 1
Takashi Toritani drove in two first-inning runs and Takahiro Arai had three hits and an RBI as host Hanshin topped front-running Yakult for the second straight night.
Second-year import Randy Messenger (8-2) tossed a four-hitter, walking two and fanning seven, for his first complete game in Japan.