The Saitama Seibu Lions went 3-2-1 against the Orix Buffaloes and Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters for a six game home stand. They're now 6.5 games up on the Fighters for one of their largest leads of the season as they remain on top of the Pacific League.
Here is how it all happened:
===
Game 1 against Orix had Shinsaburo Tawata against Andrew Albers. This was a nightmare start for Tawata, where he failed to record an early out and two runs came home on a throwing error by Hideto Asamura. Timely hits continued and made it 6-0 in the first.
The Lions chipped away at the lead with solo HRs from Shuta Tonosaki and Ernesto Mejia. Albers was eventually chased in the bottom of the 6th, as Hotaka Yamakawa hit a two-run HR.
It wasn't until the 8th inning where the Lions tied it off Yoshinobu Yamamoto. Timely hits came from Tomoya Mori and Takeya "Okawari-kun" Nakamura with the latter coming with two outs. Despite the disaster first inning, Tawata went seven more frames and didn't allow an extra run
Deunte Heath pitched a clean 9th inning while Kyle Martin had a double play in the 10th to keep it tied. Yamakawa beat out a double play in the 10th with a head slide. Mori took the next pitch into the gap and Yamakawa scored from first for a sayonara win. It was Mori's third sayonara of 2018.
Lions 7, Buffaloes 6 (10 innings)
Game note:
-Fumikazu Kimura and Daiki Enokida were taken off the roster for Sho Ito and Aito Takeda with the latter making his first career ichi-gun start. Takeda went 0-2.
===
Game 2 was Kona Takahashi facing Taisuke Yamaoka, where the latter made his first start since July 28. This game featured all home runs as Hiroyuki Nakajima hit a two-run HR in the first while Tonosaki responded with a solo HR.
Masataka Yoshida hit a broken bat two-run HR in the third and that all but sealed the game in the third. Takahashi still went six innings despite giving up four runs.
The Lions once again chipped away at the lead with solo HRs from Okawari-kun and Yamakawa, but they continued to strand the runner on second base throughout the night. They had one final chance with Tonosaki on second base, but pinch hitter Takumi Kuriyama hit a liner right to the left fielder to end it.
Buffaloes 4, Lions 3
===
The final game of this series had a rematch of Tatsuya Imai facing Brandon Dickson. This was a pitcher's duel which featured stranding runners all night long. Imai conceded a run early, but the Lions couldn't punch in a run of their own until the 8th inning, where Yamakawa hit a solo HR.
Later in the 8th, there was a two out chance for Kuriyama and he got a base hit, but Tomoya Mori couldn't touch home plate on review and was ruled out. Both side went scoreless in extras where Mori stranded two more runners in the 12th to create an even stalemate.
Lions 1, Buffaloes 1 (12 innings)
===
The homestand continued as the Fighters came to town with Mizuki Hori against Yusei Kikuchi. Ryo Watanabe hit a solo HR in the second while Nishikawa also had a timely hit for a 2-0 Fighters lead. Yamakawa hit another solo HR in the 2th for his fourth in a row in as many games. Okawari-kun tied the game in the 5th with a solo HR for his 20th of the year.
Two sacrifice fly balls led to a manufactured run in the 6th for the Lions as they took the lead at 3-2. Kikuchi stayed in the 7th and this backfired as Kensuke Kondo and Brandon Laird had timely hits to give the Fighters the lead once again. Kyle Martin allowed a late 9th inning HR from Sho Nakata to seal it as the Fighters took the first game.
Fighters 5, Lions 3
Game note:
-Aito Takeda and Kona Takahashi were deactivated to make room for starter Ken Togame and Yuji Kaneko with the latter making his return in this game. He scored the initial go-ahead run off the sacrifice fly.
===
Game two had Ken Togame up against Naoyuki Uwasawa. This one had an early start to the scoring with Shogo Akiyama hitting a Rickey Henderson HR and Okawari-kun htiting a two-run HR to make it 3-0. Togame gave up a flurry of hits and the game was tied 3-3/
Hotaka Yamakawa had a timely single after Sosuke Genda stole second to make it 4-3 in the third , but the Fighters tied it again in the 5th, but Togame didn't leave trailing after his outing was done.
Makoto Aiuchi struggled in the 6th and walked multiple batters, giving up the go-ahead run. Hiromasa Saito looked like he would fold under pressure and gave up a run through a wild pitch to Kensuke Kondo and it was 6-4.
The best chance for the Lions came in the bottom of the 8th, where they loaded the bases against Michael Tonkin with two walks and a hit. Takumi Kuriyama pinch hit for the catcher and grounded out to bring in a run. This led to the DH being removed as Mori was put in the field.
Yuji Kaneko hit a triple with the outfield playing in and both runners scored to make it 7-6. Deunte Heath closed it out in the 9th adn the Lions stole one.
Lions 7, Fighters 6
Game note:
-Genda's stolen base was his 30th of the season.
===
The final game had a battle of foreigners with Brian Wolfe against Nick Martinez. Sho Nakata started the scoring with a two-out timely for the first blood. Hideto Asamura responded with a solo HR. After the Lions stranded runners in the third, the Fighters got another two-out timely hit from Ryo Watanabe.
Shuta Tonosaki responded with a solo HR in the 4th to tie it again at 2-2. It wasn't until the 6th when Shinya Tsuruoka broke the tie with a hit down the RF line. Watanabe added another to make it 4-2 as he earned a modasho. It took an even harder 7th inning when Shota Takekuma left two runners on base for Katsunori Hirai. A strikeout and a lineout double play prevented further damage.
The Lions got their chance in the bottom of the 7th, where Kaneko plated one run after initially showing bunt. They successfully loaded the bases with two walks, one by Kuriyama and another from Akiyama. With Asamura hitting, he made no doubt with a grand slam to give the Lions a lead.
This one still was far from over as Kyle Martin loaded the bases with three walks. However, he got a strikeout on Haruki Nishikawa and Kensuke Kondo grounded out for a tough Houdini and shutdown frame. Deunte Heath had minimal trouble closing this one out like the last game.
Lions 7, Fighters 4
===
This was a solid week when they were a few outs away from facing defeat. Thrilling wins and hopefully the Fighters are demoralized from the last series. It's been a whacky week, but the Lions fans and team will take what we're getting.
The biggest concern is how the teams is home run dependent, needing to not rely on HRs for the only offense, but it was a fine result to build up the lead on the Fighters as they're 6.5 up. Lions need to take advantage of this in the coming weeks.
===
Follow us on Twitter @GraveyardBall
No comments:
Post a Comment