Giants stop Dragons’ club-record run at home
There had been no place like dome for the Chunichi Dragons since the middle of May. But not even being at Nagoya Dome could hide the fact that the Yomiuri Giants are a little bit better than the Dragons these days.
Shinnosuke Abe dusted off his uniform in the ninth inning and skied a pinch-hit double to the gap in left center to help Yomiuri end Chunichi’s club-record home winning steak at 14 on Saturday with a 2-1 win.
The Dragons last loss at the dome was a 3-1 decision to the Lotte Marines on May 16, but Japan all-time saves leader Hitoki Iwase couldn’t protect a 1-0 lead in the ninth, hitting leadoff man Yoshinobu Takahashi and allowing a single to Kenji Yano to make it first and third with one out..
Abe took a high 3-2 slider the opposite way to give the Giants the lead.
Even with the loss, the Dragons are 27-7-6 at home. But they’ve been blowing more smoke than fire recently, falling to 4-6 in July.
A month ago they had the lead in the CL, and now they’re four games back of the first-place Giants.
TIGERS 3, SWALLOWS 2, 10 INNINGS
Takashi Toritani’s two-out RBI double plated the winning run as Hanshin held off Yakult for a walk-off win at Koshien Stadium.
Toritani’s opposite-field liner [his sixth career walk-off hit] took a hop, hit the fence near the corner and crawled along the lip of the padding to allow Yamato Maeda to score from first to end the game.
CARP 8, BAYSTARS 3
Eiishin Soyogi had two hits and four RBIs, and Yutaro Mukae homered twice [his first longball since 2010], and Takeru Imamura (1-0) fired two scoreless innings of relief for his first win this year as Hiroshima cruised at Yokohama.
The Carp are just two games behind the third-place Swallows, while the BayStars have lost seven of eight decisions.
PACIFIC LEAGUE
FIGHTERS 2, EAGLES 1, 10 INNINGS
Kenshi Sugiya put together his first three-hit game, knocking in both runs in the process, to lift second-place Nippon Ham past host Rakuten.
Sugiya singled in the eighth to get the Fighters even and drove in the game-winning run with a two-out single to right, and closer Hisashi Takeda escaped when Rakuten’s Kazuo Matsui flied out hard to left with the potential winning runs on the end the game.
LIONS 4, BUFFALOES 1
First-year hurler Enrique Gonzalez (1-4) worked five innings of one-run ball [on his birthday] in his first start since being converted from a reliever, and three players each drove in a run as Seibu beat host Orix.
Hiroyuki Nakajima, Takeya Nakamura and Yutaro Osaki all had RBIs for the Lions to help Gonzalez notch his first win in Japan.
HAWKS 3, MARINES 0
SoftBank’s No. 1 pick in last year’s draft Shota Takeda (2-0) tossed six shutout innings, and Yuichi Honda’s bases-clearing triple in the fourth accounted for the game’s only runs as the Hawks blanked front-running Lotte at FYJ Dome.
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Giants stop Dragons’ club-record run at home
There had been no place like dome for the Chunichi Dragons since the middle of May. But not even being at Nagoya Dome could hide the fact that the Yomiuri Giants are a little bit better than the Dragons these days.
Shinnosuke Abe dusted off his uniform in the ninth inning and skied a pinch-hit double to the gap in left center to help Yomiuri end Chunichi’s club-record home winning steak at 14 on Saturday with a 2-1 win.
The Dragons last loss at the dome was a 3-1 decision to the Lotte Marines on May 16, but Japan all-time saves leader Hitoki Iwase couldn’t protect a 1-0 lead in the ninth, hitting leadoff man Yoshinobu Takahashi and allowing a single to Kenji Yano to make it first and third with one out..
Abe took a high 3-2 slider the opposite way to give the Giants the lead.
Even with the loss, the Dragons are 27-7-6 at home. But they’ve been blowing more smoke than fire recently, falling to 4-6 in July.
A month ago they had the lead in the CL, and now they’re four games back of the first-place Giants.
TIGERS 3, SWALLOWS 2, 10 INNINGS
Takashi Toritani’s two-out RBI double plated the winning run as Hanshin held off Yakult for a walk-off win at Koshien Stadium.
Toritani’s opposite-field liner [his sixth career walk-off hit] took a hop, hit the fence near the corner and crawled along the lip of the padding to allow Yamato Maeda to score from first to end the game.
CARP 8, BAYSTARS 3
Eiishin Soyogi had two hits and four RBIs, and Yutaro Mukae homered twice [his first longball since 2010], and Takeru Imamura (1-0) fired two scoreless innings of relief for his first win this year as Hiroshima cruised at Yokohama.
The Carp are just two games behind the third-place Swallows, while the BayStars have lost seven of eight decisions.
PACIFIC LEAGUE
FIGHTERS 2, EAGLES 1, 10 INNINGS
Kenshi Sugiya put together his first three-hit game, knocking in both runs in the process, to lift second-place Nippon Ham past host Rakuten.
Sugiya singled in the eighth to get the Fighters even and drove in the game-winning run with a two-out single to right, and closer Hisashi Takeda escaped when Rakuten’s Kazuo Matsui flied out hard to left with the potential winning runs on the end the game.
LIONS 4, BUFFALOES 1
First-year hurler Enrique Gonzalez (1-4) worked five innings of one-run ball [on his birthday] in his first start since being converted from a reliever, and three players each drove in a run as Seibu beat host Orix.
Hiroyuki Nakajima, Takeya Nakamura and Yutaro Osaki all had RBIs for the Lions to help Gonzalez notch his first win in Japan.
HAWKS 3, MARINES 0
SoftBank’s No. 1 pick in last year’s draft Shota Takeda (2-0) tossed six shutout innings, and Yuichi Honda’s bases-clearing triple in the fourth accounted for the game’s only runs as the Hawks blanked front-running Lotte at FYJ Dome.