Five for Fighting ...
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Some rights reserved.
Hokkaido Nippon Ham was down to its last strike, but Yang Zhong-sho showed a lot of fight, spanking the 12th offering from Ryan Speier into left field for an RBI single that gave the Fighters a 4-3 comeback victory over the Rakuten Eagles on Friday night in Kobe.
The win was the fifth straight for the Fighters, whose Bobby Keppel (1-0) battled in nine innings, escaping a late two-on, none-out jam in his final frame to get the win. He was touched up for nine hits, while walking two and fanning three on 137 pitches.
After Kensuke Tanaka drove in the tying run in the ninth with a single to center off Speier (0-1), who was trying to get the last five outs, Yang fouled off seven consecutive pitches, took a ball out of the zone and then smacked a slider into left.
“I had struck out in my other four at-bats, so I wanted to do anything I could to put the ball in play,” Yang said. “My mind-set was just to get the bat on the ball.”
Eiichi Koyano slugged his first homer of the season and Micah Hoffpauir cranked his fourth, both solo shots in the top of the fourth, to give the Fighters the lead. Rakuten’s Takeshi Yamasaki rolled a two-run single up the middle in the bottom of the frame to even the score.
The Eagles took the lead in the next inning when Tanaka threw wildly to first, allowing Daisuke Kusano to cross home for 3-2 lead.
Speier allowed four hits in 1.1 innings, tossing 43 pitches.
BUFFALOES 2, LIONS 0
Park Chan Ho (1-1) earned his first victory in Japan with seven scoreless innings on three hits and four walk with a half-dozen Ks as Orix blanked visiting Saitama Seibu.
The Lions suffered their third shutout in four straight losses, during which they have scored one run on 18 hits.
CENTRAL LEAGUE
SWALLOWS 5, CARP 0
Hitoshi Yamamoto (1-0) fired seven scoreless innings to win his first pro start, and Kazuhiro Hatakeyama belted a solo blast to break up a scoreless tie in the sixth inning as Tokyo Yakult recorded its club-record-tying third straight shutout in a win over Hiroshima at The Zoom.
The righty allowed two hits and walked two with five Ks as the Swallows won their fourth straight, while snapping Hiroshima’s six-game winning streak. Yakult hasn’t given up a run in 30 innings.
TIGERS 4, BAYSTARS 3
Takahiro Arai’s walk-off double in the ninth inning helped host Hanshin send Yokohama to its fifth straight loss.
Terrmel Sledge ripped his sixth longball in a three-run seventh inning that gave the BayStars the lead, but the Tigers got even in the bottom of the frame on Matt Murton’s solo blast, and Arai gave the club its second sayonara victory of the season with a liner that got over the head of Yuki Yoshimura in right.
[Edited by: jgibson on Apr 23, 2011 7:45 AM]