2018 Seibu Lions Weekly Digest: Swept at home before Interleague

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The Saitama Seibu Lions went 2-4 against the Fukuoka Softbank Hawks and Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters. Their lead in the Pacific League is down to one game ahead of the Fighters with interleague play about to start.

Here is how it all went down:

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The first matchup was outdoors as Fabio Castillo took on Tadashi Settsu. Castillo started off slowly giving up a barrage of hits, which included a timely from Nobuhiro Matsuda in the 1st and Yuki Yanagita in the second.

The Lions squandered multiple chances early on as Settsu struggled with control. From strikeouts, to Yuji Kaneko being unclutch with two runners on. Akira Nakamura's two-run HR put the game away early at 4-0 and the Lions couldn't recover.

Kazuki Kaneko hit a HR in the top of the 9th for a consolation for his first career hit, but it was too late.

Hawks 5, Lions 3

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The roof remained open for the second game as Ken Togame took on Shuta Ishikawa. With some early trouble in the first, Togame walked a batter, but the runner on third scored on ball-four thanks to a wild pitch to make it 1-0.

It was another game where the Lions continued to threaten with runners on base, but didn't score. Togame limited the damage early on and stranded runners himself to help his cause. Shogo Akiyama tied the game with a solo HR in the top of the 5th inning and Togame got a shutdown inning with a runner on second.

Shuta Tonosaki got on base with a double in the 6th and advanced to third on a groundout by Tomoya Mori. Masatoshi Okada drove in the go-ahead run with two outs and made it 2-1. Togame had the bases loaded in the bottom of the frame, but Hikaru Kawase grounded into a 4-6-3 double play to create the Houdini.

Shota Takekuma pitched the 7th and while Neil Wagner had to strikeout Shuhei Fukuda with the tying run on second in the 8th. Tatsushi Masuda closed it out in the 9th with a 1-2-3 inning as the Lions took the second game,

Lions 2, Hawks 1

Game note:

-Kazuki Kaneko made his first career start at 3B with Tonosaki moving to RF. He went 1-3 with a single and was caught stealing.

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The last game had Brian Wolfe returning for the first time in more than a month against Kenichi Nakata. Tonosaki's aggressive base running paid off early when he stole second and the ball scooted to the outfield to move to third on an attempt. Mori delivered a timely two-out hit and scored him for the first blood.

This lead didn't last long, when Alfredo Despaigne hit a solo HR in the bottom of the 2nd and a timely hit by Takuya Kai to make it 2-1. Yuki Yanagita added a two-run HR in the third as it was a 4-1 lead.

The Lions got both runs back in the 4th when Ginjiro Sumitani and K. Kaneko delivered with timely hits of their own, but Wolfe couldn't get a shutdown inning as he allowed the leadoff runner in the bottom of the frame on base. Hirotaka Koishi allowed the runner to score when Yuichi Honda hit a gapper, but that was it.

Shogo Akiyama hit a three-run HR in the top of the 6th, after the Hawks put in a lefty specialist in Shinya Kayama to give the Lions the lead again. Their bullpen was destroyed in the 7th and 9th innings for three runs a piece, where the offense exploded with gappers and bloop singles to pull away for good.

The Lions won series for the only the third time in Fukuoka since 2008.

Lions 12, Hawks 5

Game notes:

-Akiyama and Sumitani had modashos with four-hit games. The former was a triple short of a cycle.

-Deunte Heath was deactivated to make room for Wolfe.

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The week shifted home as the Fighters came to town with Hirotoshi Takanashi against spot starter Makoto Aiuchi. Sho Nakata hit a two-run HR early and it appeared the Fighters would light this game up, but it remained competitive when Shuta Tonosaki drove in a run and Masatoshi Okada hit a solo HR to tie it up at 2-2.

Aiuchi gave up another run in the third, but no more damage with three runs allowed through five innings of work. The Lions couldn't do anymore damage with the bats and were penalized when Shogo Noda was pitching and gave up a HR to Kensha Sugiya. Katsunori Hirai then gave up a three-run HR to Kensuke Kondo to ice it.

Shogo Akiyama put some consolation runs on the board, but it was too late.

Fighters: 8, Lions 5

Game note;

-Kyohei Nagae was taken off to make room for Aiuchi.

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The next game had Kenta Uehara against Shinsaburo Tawata in a battle of 2015 First Round draft picks. Hokkaido struck first on an RBI single from Taishi Ota. Yuji Kaneko tied it up in the bottom of the third with a timely of his own.

A sac fly from Tomoya Mori in the bottom of the 4th made it 2-1. Trouble for Tawata came in the 5th when Ota delivered a two-RBI single to give the Fighters the lead again.Y. Kaneko helped his own cause again with a bases loaded two-RBI double in the 6th.

Shota Takekuma couldn't get the shutdown inning, as Kondo hit a two-run HR in the top of the 7th. Y. Kaneko helped the Lions again, with a solo HR in the bottom of the 8th to tie the game. The Lions even had a the winning run on base for the 9th and 10th innings. However, Shinya Tsuruoka had a timely hit to put the Fighters up while the Lions struck out in the bottom half to lose another one, despite Y./Kaneko's modasho. .

Fighters 6, Lions 5 (10 innings)

Game note:

-Tadasuke Minamikawa was called up after Aiuchi was taken off for the spot start.

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The final matchup before interleague play had Daiki Enokida against Kohei Arihara. It was an early 6-0 start for the Lions capped off by a grand slam by Mori. However, this was all for nothing as the Fighters crept back slowly where Enokida gave up four runs and the bullpen entered in the 5th inning. With the Lions up 8-5, a solo HR was given up by Takekuma and Neil Wagner allowed a two-run HR to Brandon Laird to tie it.

In the bottom of the 9th, Ernesto Mejia had a chance with two outs, but grounded into a fielder's choice. For the top of the 10th, Hideto Asamura failed to touch second base and the Fighters had a chance with 1 out. Kensuke Kondo made no mistake hitting one to the wall and both runners scored, making this nearly a replay of Saturday's game.

The Lions were swept for the first time in 2018 as a result.

Fighters 10, Lions 8 (10 innings)

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The homestand was quite disappointing after such a strong series in Fukuoka. We knew the bullpen was due for something like this and unfortunately it happened. On our podcast episode which will come soon, this will be a discussion point for sure.

Lots to worry about with a small lead and interleague play coming up, but if anything, it's a good change of pace after a horrid May.

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