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The Saitama Seibu Lions went 5-1 for the week which featured their first home stand. At 5-4, they currently sit in A-class slightly above the pack in what is still a young season.
Here's how it all went down:
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The home opener featured Zach Neal making his debut against Hideaki Wakui. This one was early from the early stages as Sosuke Genda's timely triple drew first blood. Hotaka Yamakawa hit a solo HR and even Fumikazu Kimura contributed with a timely infield single.
Tomoya Mori broke the game open with two timely hits with the bases loaded, plating in a total of four runs on the night. Neal was able to go 5.1 innings before he was given the hook and won his debut while the Lions got their first win of the year.
Lions 7, Marines 4
Game note:
-Ernesto Mejia was called up while Hitoto Komazuki was taken off the ichi-gun roster. Komazuki has yet to appear in any ichi-gun game for his career/
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Game 2 had Shota Takekuma making his first start since 2012 against Brandon Mann. Shogo Akiyama started the scoring after grounding into a double play. An early error on Yudai Fujioka gave the Lions a 3rd inning chance as Yuji Kaneko took advantage of this with a timely hit. Genda and Akiyama added with timely hits of their own to make it 5-0 and ending Mann's night.
Takekuma went five innings where his only blemish was a three-run HR to Shogo Nakamura in the third. He finished the night allowing six hits, two walks and had two strikeouts.
Takeya "Okawari-kun" Nakamura cleared the bases with a double in the 5th which sealed it for the night. He added a timely hit in the 7th for good measure as the Lions won their second straight.
Lions 9, Marines 3
Game notes:
-Shohei Suzuki made his debut as a pinch runner in the 7th inning and scored off the timely hit from Okawari-kun.
-Jen-Lei Liao made his debut pitching the 9th inning, where he allowed one hit and hit one batter.
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The final game had Keisuke Honda up against Kazuya Ojima, where the latter was making his NPB debut. Mori started the game with a bases-loaded triple for an early 3-0 lead. Tonosaki grounded out to plate Mori in the first.
In the second, an RBI groundout by Yamakawa appeared to be the only offensive damage, but became much more. Mori hit an RBI single, Tonosaki plated him with an RBI double and Takumi Kuriyama added to that with an RBI single. This ended Ojima's night after two innings.
Honda would go 6+ innings with two strikouts 1 walk, four earned runs and five hits overall. He gave up a two-run HR to both Kennys Vargas and Brandon Laird before he was pulled. Shogo Noda cleaned up the 7th while Katsunori Hirai had no trouble in the 8th.
Kyle Martin had a rough ninth inning giving up a two-run HR to Katsuya Kakunaka with the lead, but it was enough to record a 27th out and sweep the Marines, having the win streak reach three.
Game note:
-To make room for Honda, Shohei Suzuki was taken off the ichi-gun roster.
-Aito Takeda came in as a substitute for Yuji Kaneko in the 4th. He went 0-2 and is still looking for his first NPB hit.
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The week shifted to Tokyo Dome as Naoyuki Uwasawa took on Shinsaburo Tawata. In short, Tawata was outdueled while Po-Jung Wang drove in the key runs.
Uwasawa went seven strong innings with only one run allowed and both bullpens ended up trading runs.
Fighters 5, Lions 2
Game note:
-With a short week ahead, Honda was taken off for OF Daisuke Togawa.
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Game two had Takayuki Kato against Tatsuya Imai. With the Fighters going with bullpening, Chihiro Kaneko entered in the third inning and all disaster began. Tomoya Mori and Shuta Tonosaki lit him up for five runs where the former hit a three-run HR.
The game was broken open in the 5th inning with a seven-run frame by the Lions offense. Among starting players, only Hotaka Yamakawa and Okawari-kun did not have a hit where the latter was subbed out early. Even Ryusei Sato was able to record his first career hit and Togawa made his ichi-gun debut as a pinch hitter. It was the biggest blowout win for the Lions in 2019.
Lions 16, Fighters 3
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The third game featured a pitcher's duel between Kona Takahashi and Kohei Arihara. Takahashi gave up two runs in the third with timely hits from Takuya Nakashima and Haruki Nishikawa. Both sides did not budge with the starters going eight innings. Arihara dominated the Lions with 11 strikeouts.
Justin Hancock took the 9th inning and disaster came. With two runners on, Mori plated one run in to cut the lead in half. Shuta Tonosaki had the game-deciding blow with a three-run HR that went to the upper corner of Tokyo Dome. Tatsushi Masuda gave up a hit in the 9th, but closed it out as the Lions stole the final game of the series.
Lions 4, Fighters 2
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After an ugly opening series, the Lions had a solid week going 5-1 and playing at home was a remedy for an awful time in Fukuoka. There's no question it is good to see Takahashi develop and the offense still being top notch.
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