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The Saitama Seibu Lions stayed in first place with a 5-1 week against the Orix Buffaloes and Chiba Lotte Marines.
They now hold a three game lead on the Softbank Hawks.
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Orix Buffaloes
The Lions struggled against Yoshinobu Yamamoto, but mounted a comeback in the 8th inning as they stayed close.
Hitomi Honda was pitching in the 8th inning and the Lions had multiple hits, including a game-tying timely hit from Sosuke Genda. With an intentional walk to Hotaka Yamakawa which loaded the bases, Honda walked Takumi Kuriyama and the Lions took a lead they'd never give up for the first game.
The Lions took the second game with solo HRs from Tomoya Mori off Hiroya Miyagi. Katsunori Hirai only gave up a solo HR and earned another win with six innings pitched.
Takeya Nakamura turned back the clock in the third game with two home runs, saying "Okawari" on the second as he hit a walkoff for what was a tight game. It was his 5th career sayonara HR, tying him for the franchise record with Futoshi Nakanishi and Kazuhiro Kiyohara. At 38 years old, became the oldest in club history to have a sayonara HR
Lions 4 Buffaloes 2
Lions 3 Buffaloes 1
Lions 3 Buffaloes 2
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Chiba Lotte Marines
The Lions came back from a 3-0 deficit in the first game and eventually walked off again from a HR by Seiji Kawagoe.
Yoshinobu Mizukami couldn't hold a 1-0 lead as Brandon Laird hit a two-run HR.
Dietrich Enns recovered from giving up his own two-run HR in the third game and the Lions exploded for six runs in the fourth inning off Ryotaro Mori, who was playing in only his second game.
Hotaka Yamakawa had a HR in all three games and for Enns, it was his fourth straight win at home.
Lions 4 Marines 3
Marines 2 Lions 1
Lions 10 Marines 4
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What couldn't go unnoticed was the decline of Brian O'Grady and Jantzen Witte, who sat out of Sunday's game and had a cold week. Time is ticking and the last chance gasp for any opportunity is here.
Tatsushi Masuda came back this week from COVID and pitched a scoreless frame, but the other reinforcement this week was Burch Smith, who had a shaky outing, but pitched three scoreless innings in the comeback win over the Marines.
With the bullpen concerns for Taira and Mizukami, Smith doesn't have the mileage this year and his role as a possible swingman could be huge for the last two months.
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