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The Saitama Seibu Lions went 3-3 this week against the Chiba Lotte Marines and Orix Buffaloes. They sit in fifth place of the Pacific League, only 1/2 a game behind the Fighters for fourth.
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Game 1: Kona Takahashi vs. Ayumu Ishikawa
Takahashi dug himself a 2-0 hole when Seiya Inoue and Yudai Fujioka had timely hits in the second inning. After a third timely hit from Hisanori Yasuda, the Lions looked like they'd lose trailing 3-0.
However, Wataru Takagi hit his 2nd career HR in the 7th and Yuji Kaneko had a timely hit in the 8th when the Marines left Ishikawa in the game too long. With Frank Herrmann pitching and the tying run on third base, Cory Spangenberg took the first pitch he saw into the RF stands for a two-run HR. Tatsushi Masuda had the tying run on second base, but closed out the game with a strikeout of Shohei Kato on full count to give the Lions a comeback 4-3 wi.
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Game 2: Shota Hamaya vs. Kazuya Ojima
Hayama went six innings with only one run given up on a timely from Shogo Nakamura in the sixth inning in his first career start. He struck out three batters and allowed only four hits. The day belonged to Takumi Kuriyama, who went 4-4 with a solo HR and timely hit to make most of the Lions offense. This one finished with the textbook 7-8-9 bullpen lineup of Ryosuke Moriwaki, Kaima Taira and Tatsushi Masuda having clean innings, not allowing a base runner for the rest of thee night in the Lions third straight win.
For Hamaya, his first career start was also a victory.
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Game 3: Tetsuya Utsumi vs. Daiki Iwashita
Leonys Martin hit two HRs and Utsumi had no chance going only four innings for the night. On offense, the Lions couldn't score off Iwashita until the 9th inning, when Sosuke Genda had a timely hit. This ended in an 8-1 defeat.
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Game 4: Zach Neal vs. Taisuke Yamaoka
Neal allowed five runs to score in three innings and the Lions couldn't recover from it. Steven Moya hit a two-run HR and that summed up this game in a nutshell. Taisuke Yamaoka allowed a chance in the first inning, but recovered only allowing two runs through six innings in an 8-2 laugher.
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Game 5: Sean Nolin vs. Sachiya Yamasaki
The game was tied 1-1 in the top of the 6th inning when Sosuke Genda hit a sacrifice fly, but Nolin struggled in the bottom of the frame. He loaded the bases and had five walks. With Tetsu Miyagawa pitching, Aderlin Rodriguez hit a two-strike double in LF to score two runs. Orix pulled away off Reed Garrett to make it 6-1. Takumi Kuriyama hit a two-run HR in the 9th as a consolation, but it was already too late.
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Game 6: Wataru Matsumoto vs. Andrew Albers
Matsumoto gave up three solo HRs to Moya, Ryo Ohta and Hayato Nishiura as he dug himself a 4-0 hole through five innings. The Lions came back and got two runs through a two-run HR by Hoktaka Yamakawa off Albers. In an unlikely fashion, the bases were loaded with a chance for Tomoya Mori in the 8th inning, as he was pinch hitting for Masatoshi Okada. It worked to perfection as he hit the wall from a pitch off Ryo Yoshida for a 5-4 lead. The 7-8-9 combo of Moriwaki, Taira and Masuda had no trouble closing this one as the Lions had another .500 week.
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In another disappointing week, the bats weren't good enough and neither was the pitching from both imports when facing Orix. Close any thought of postseason baseball as this Lions team has too much to overcome.
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