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The Saitama Seibu Lions went 4-1 against the Tohoku Rakuten Eagles and Fukuoka Softbank Hawks in what was a productive week. They cut their magic number down to one after not receiving any help from the rest of the Pacific League, having to earn their way to lowering it.
Their series against the Hawks was the beginning of a stretch with eight consecutive games to close out the regular season.
Here is how the week went:
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The first game from Sendai had Shinsaburo Tawata facing Shoma Fujihira in a battle of first round draft picks. Two errors from Hotaka Yamakawa and Hideto Asamura lead to a run by the Eagles in the third inning to break the scoreless tie.
This lead didn't last long, as the Lions went back-to-back-to-back in solo home runs from Asamura, Yamakawa and Takumi Kuriyama for a 3-1 lead. Hiroaki Shimauchi brought the Eagles back to within run off a timely hit i the 5th. Tawata continued to play with fire, having several runners on base and giving up eight hits through 6.1 innings.
An error from Takeya "Okawari-kun" Nakamura led to another chance. With Ryuya Ogawa coming in, "Ginji" Akaminai dropped a bloop single to tie the game. The Lions continued to strand runners on base all night and couldn't muster up any offense.
With both bullpens holding strong with Kyle Martin and Deunte Heath for the Lions, this one went to extra innings. Okawari-kun hit a solo HR off Chia-Hao Sung and gave the Lions a lead, but the bottom of the 10th had drama.
Katsunori Hirai retired the first two batters, but walked the third and Hatsuhiko Tsuji went with Shogo Noda, which was countered with our old friend Naoto Watanabe pinch hitting. Noda walked Watanabe and Tatsushi Masuda came in. On a full count, Masuda struck out Louis Okoye for the last out as the win streak was kept alive.
Lions 4, Eagles 3 (10 innings)
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The season finale against the Eagles had Daiki Enokida against Yuri Furukawa. Zealous Wheeler hit a sac fly for the first blood in the third inning while Kengo Horiuchi recorded his first NPB ichi-gun hit in teh 4th. It was a timely triple to make it 2-0 as Enokida was forced to strand runners all night.
Despite the two runs, Enokida was able to go seven innings and settled in after the fourth inning. The Lions once again stranded runners all night, but a chance came in the 9th inning after a walk from Tomoya Mori and singles from Masatoshi Okada and Sosuke Genda, where the latter had a modasho. Shogo Akiyama hit a grand slam off Kohei Morihara and gave the Lions a lead for good, as they were two outs away from losing.
Deunte Heath allowed a solo HR to Toshiaki Imae, but that was it and the win streak reached 10 games.
Lions 4, Eagles 3
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The week shifted back home with Rick van Den Hurk facing Chun-Lin Kuo. The Lions scored first off a three-run HR from Tomoya Mori, but the Hawks got two runs back off Kuo through the fifth inning. Kuo lasted 4.2 innings before he let two runners on base and Hatsuhiko Tsuji pulled the hook. Ryuya Ogawa retired Yuki Yanagita as the Lions kept the lead.
After Yamakawa hit a HR, the Lions had a meltdown inning in the top of the 6th. Katsunori Hirai inherited a mess and gave up a bases-clearing double to Takuya Kai as the Hawks took the lead. It looked like the Lions would fail to capitalize on chances again, but another one came in the bottom of the 8th when Ren Kajiya walked Ernesto Mejia and Yuji Kaneko reached base on a fielder's choice after Tomoki Takata chose to go to second base and failed.
Kazuo Matsui as a pinch runner saved the inning as he was safe at second. Kimiyasu Kudo went with Shinya Kayama to face Shogo Akiyama and the latter hit a three-run HR into the batter's eye for a 7-5 Lions lead.
This one still wasn't over as Deunte Heath had two runners on base. However, Alfredo Despaigne flew out to right field and the Lions win streak reached 11 while halting the Hawks 7-game wins streak at the same time.
Lions 7, Hawks 5
Game notes:
-Makoto Aiuchi, Hirotaka Koishi and Nien Ting Wu were deactivated.
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Game two had Yusei Kikuchi against Kodai Senga. Yamakawa hit a three-run HR in the first inning. However, this lead wouldn't last long as Yamakawa's error put runners on base and the Hawks struck back with a barrage of timely hits in the third to tie it at 3-3.
Senga appeared to have settled in, while Kikuchi had to strand runners all night. With two outs in the 6th, Okawari-kun hit a two-run HR to give the Lions a lead. Kikuchi would get a clean 7th inning and settle in nicely to do his part. Kyle Martin pitched a scoreless 8th which featured a double play.
Deunte Heath closed it out and the win streak reached 12.
Lions 5, Hawks 3
Game note:
-The Seibu Lions released Neil Wagner.
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The final game had Tatsuya Imai facing Angel Miranda in a rematch from two weeks ago. The Lions struck first on an RBI groundout, but they squandered their chances again for the day. Imai conceded a two-run HR to Nobuhiro Matsuda in the fourth and it gave the Hawks their first lead of the day.
Matsuda hit another HR off Masuda to ice it and secure no clinch party in Tokorozawa as the win streak ended. Miranda ended up going seven strong innings and scattering five hits.
Hawks 3, Lions 1
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It's safe to say the Lions should clinch their first pennant in 10 years this week. There is some concern with the bats lacking timely hits, but the home runs have been timely to say the least.
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