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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License.
Some rights reserved.
The Yokohama BayStars took advantage of the 210-minute day-game rule – instituted to conserve energy -- and walked out Jingu Stadium electrified after rallying for four runs in the final two innings for a 6-6 tie with the Tokyo Yakult Swallows.
Takehiro Ishikawa capped a ninth-inning rally off Tokyo Yakult Swallows closer Lim Chang Yong after the BayStars put up a three-spot in the eighth.
The draw left them 3-1-1 this week, but also has them feeling as though they had won. Players gathered and grunted in the dugout after the game, and some of the 18,916 fans shouted words of encouragement for a team that seems to have reservations in the Central League cellar, where they’ve finished the past three years.
Ishikawa called the rally for four runs over the final two innings “incredible,” and said, “Every day it’s a different guy and that’s good.”
Second-year skipper Takao Obana was pretty pumped after the game and wasn’t at all upset his team couldn’t push home the go-ahead run against Lim.
“In the ninth inning we were up against their closer but the guys didn’t give up,” Obana said.
Ishikawa was 2-for-4 with an RBI, and Naoto Watanabe went 2-for-5 with a run driven in. Terrmel Sledge’s homer binge was halted, but he had two hits and an RBI.
CARP 4, GIANTS 2
Jun Hirose had two hits and two RBIs, and second-year hurler Takeru Imamura tossed 3.1 innings in relief to help Hiroshima hold off Yomiuri at The Zoom.
Imamura (1-0), who turns 20 today (April 17) came on in relief of injured starter Giancarlo Alvarado and allowed six hits but keep Yomiuri off the scoreboard.
Alex Ramirez homered in his third straight game for the Giants.
TIGERS 1, DRAGONS 1
Hanshin scored on an error in the top of the sixth inning and escaped a one-out, bases-loaded jam in the 11th inning to tie Chunichi at Nagoya Dome in a game shortened by the 3.5-hour rule.
Chunichi’s Masahiko Morino singled in the sixth inning for the 1,000th hit of his 14-plus-year career.
PACIFIC LEAGUE
LIONS 9, HAWKS 4
Takeya Nakamura slugged a three-run shot in the first inning and added another three-run blast in the sixth inning for a career-high-tying six RBIs as Saitama Seibu topped Fukuoka SoftBank at Yahoo! Japan Dome.
Seibu's Hiroyuki Nakajima had two hits and three RBIs, and converted SoftBank set-up man Tadashi Settu (0-1) flopped in his first pro start, surrendering eight runs on nine hits and a walk in 4.2 innings.
MARINES 7, FIGHTERS 6
Toshiaki Imae ripped a two-run, go-ahead blast off Naoki Miyanishi (0-1) as defending champion Chiba Lotte recovered from an early four-run hole to top Hokkaido Nippon Ham at Sapporo Dome.
EAGLES 2, BUFFALOES 1
Satoshi Nagai (1-0) held Orix to a run over 7.1 innings to make Kazuo Matsui’s fifth-inning, two-run double hold up as Tohoku Rakuten got past the Buffaloes at Koshien Stadium.