Fight on: Atsunori Inaba hits a home run in the eighth inning of the Fighters' game against the Marines on Thursday in Chiba. Nippon Ham won 4-3. KYODO PHOTODarvish (11-2) allowed three runs, two earned, and six hits in eight innings en route to his baseball-leading 11th win.The 24-year-old ace struck out five and walked two in a 108-pitch outing at QVC Marine Field.Lotte took a 1-0 lead in the third on Masato Watanabe's inside-the-park home run, in which left fielder Sho Nakata misfielded what would have been just a single.The second-place Fighters came right back in the fourth with a two-run homer by Yoshio Itoi.A run-scoring error by Lotte first baseman Jose Castillo made it 3-1 for Nippon Ham. Atsunori Inaba added a solo home run in the eighth."It was nice that my solo shot turned out to be a crucial one for our win," Inaba said. "I wasn't sure if my fly ball would stay fair, but it did with a little help from the wind."Darvish was pitching for us, so we just couldn't lose. He was visibly frustrated on the mound at times, but he didn't make things worse. He's really mature now."Hisashi Takeda closed out the game to pick up his 22nd save.Lotte rookie Atsushi Kobayashi (0-2) was charged with three runs in seven innings.Eagles 4, Buffaloes 3At Osaka's Kyocera Dome, Ryo Hijirisawa hit a tiebreaking solo homer in the fifth inning to make a winner out of Masahiro Tanaka as Tohoku Rakuten beat Orix.Tanaka (9-2) allowed three runs on nine hits in six innings. Yuki Nishi (5-3) took the loss. Darrell Rasner earned his first career save in Japan.CENTRAL LEAGUETigers 3, Dragons 1 (11)At Nagoya Dome, Takashi Toritani scored the opening run after doubling in the 11th, when catcher Kohei Oda muffed a relay throw at the plate and another run scored on closer Hitoki Iwase's throwing error in Hanshin's win over Chunichi.Akihito Fujii added an RBI grounder for insurance.Kyuji Fujikawa (2-0) got the win in relief and rookie Daiki Enokida got his first career save despite allowing an RBI triple by Tatsuro Iwasaki in the bottom of the 11th.Swallows 3, Giants 2 (11)At Jingu Stadium, Norichika Aoki hit a bases-loaded infield RBI single for the game-winning run with two outs in the 11th inning as Tokyo Yakult completed a three-game sweep of Yomiuri.Saburo Omura had an RBI single to open the scoring in the fourth before Hayato Sakamoto's solo shot in the fifth gave the Giants a 2-0 lead. Yakult rallied in the eighth, which featured Josh Whitesell's game-tying RBI single.Yomiuri fell 10 games below .500.
Saturday, July 9, 2011
Inaba homers as Darvish records 11th victory
CHIBA — Yu Darvish threw eight effective innings as the Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters avoided a three-game sweep by the Chiba Lotte Marines with a 4-3 win on Thursday.Fight on: Atsunori Inaba hits a home run in the eighth inning of the Fighters' game against the Marines on Thursday in Chiba. Nippon Ham won 4-3. KYODO PHOTODarvish (11-2) allowed three runs, two earned, and six hits in eight innings en route to his baseball-leading 11th win.The 24-year-old ace struck out five and walked two in a 108-pitch outing at QVC Marine Field.Lotte took a 1-0 lead in the third on Masato Watanabe's inside-the-park home run, in which left fielder Sho Nakata misfielded what would have been just a single.The second-place Fighters came right back in the fourth with a two-run homer by Yoshio Itoi.A run-scoring error by Lotte first baseman Jose Castillo made it 3-1 for Nippon Ham. Atsunori Inaba added a solo home run in the eighth."It was nice that my solo shot turned out to be a crucial one for our win," Inaba said. "I wasn't sure if my fly ball would stay fair, but it did with a little help from the wind."Darvish was pitching for us, so we just couldn't lose. He was visibly frustrated on the mound at times, but he didn't make things worse. He's really mature now."Hisashi Takeda closed out the game to pick up his 22nd save.Lotte rookie Atsushi Kobayashi (0-2) was charged with three runs in seven innings.Eagles 4, Buffaloes 3At Osaka's Kyocera Dome, Ryo Hijirisawa hit a tiebreaking solo homer in the fifth inning to make a winner out of Masahiro Tanaka as Tohoku Rakuten beat Orix.Tanaka (9-2) allowed three runs on nine hits in six innings. Yuki Nishi (5-3) took the loss. Darrell Rasner earned his first career save in Japan.CENTRAL LEAGUETigers 3, Dragons 1 (11)At Nagoya Dome, Takashi Toritani scored the opening run after doubling in the 11th, when catcher Kohei Oda muffed a relay throw at the plate and another run scored on closer Hitoki Iwase's throwing error in Hanshin's win over Chunichi.Akihito Fujii added an RBI grounder for insurance.Kyuji Fujikawa (2-0) got the win in relief and rookie Daiki Enokida got his first career save despite allowing an RBI triple by Tatsuro Iwasaki in the bottom of the 11th.Swallows 3, Giants 2 (11)At Jingu Stadium, Norichika Aoki hit a bases-loaded infield RBI single for the game-winning run with two outs in the 11th inning as Tokyo Yakult completed a three-game sweep of Yomiuri.Saburo Omura had an RBI single to open the scoring in the fourth before Hayato Sakamoto's solo shot in the fifth gave the Giants a 2-0 lead. Yakult rallied in the eighth, which featured Josh Whitesell's game-tying RBI single.Yomiuri fell 10 games below .500.
Fight on: Atsunori Inaba hits a home run in the eighth inning of the Fighters' game against the Marines on Thursday in Chiba. Nippon Ham won 4-3. KYODO PHOTODarvish (11-2) allowed three runs, two earned, and six hits in eight innings en route to his baseball-leading 11th win.The 24-year-old ace struck out five and walked two in a 108-pitch outing at QVC Marine Field.Lotte took a 1-0 lead in the third on Masato Watanabe's inside-the-park home run, in which left fielder Sho Nakata misfielded what would have been just a single.The second-place Fighters came right back in the fourth with a two-run homer by Yoshio Itoi.A run-scoring error by Lotte first baseman Jose Castillo made it 3-1 for Nippon Ham. Atsunori Inaba added a solo home run in the eighth."It was nice that my solo shot turned out to be a crucial one for our win," Inaba said. "I wasn't sure if my fly ball would stay fair, but it did with a little help from the wind."Darvish was pitching for us, so we just couldn't lose. He was visibly frustrated on the mound at times, but he didn't make things worse. He's really mature now."Hisashi Takeda closed out the game to pick up his 22nd save.Lotte rookie Atsushi Kobayashi (0-2) was charged with three runs in seven innings.Eagles 4, Buffaloes 3At Osaka's Kyocera Dome, Ryo Hijirisawa hit a tiebreaking solo homer in the fifth inning to make a winner out of Masahiro Tanaka as Tohoku Rakuten beat Orix.Tanaka (9-2) allowed three runs on nine hits in six innings. Yuki Nishi (5-3) took the loss. Darrell Rasner earned his first career save in Japan.CENTRAL LEAGUETigers 3, Dragons 1 (11)At Nagoya Dome, Takashi Toritani scored the opening run after doubling in the 11th, when catcher Kohei Oda muffed a relay throw at the plate and another run scored on closer Hitoki Iwase's throwing error in Hanshin's win over Chunichi.Akihito Fujii added an RBI grounder for insurance.Kyuji Fujikawa (2-0) got the win in relief and rookie Daiki Enokida got his first career save despite allowing an RBI triple by Tatsuro Iwasaki in the bottom of the 11th.Swallows 3, Giants 2 (11)At Jingu Stadium, Norichika Aoki hit a bases-loaded infield RBI single for the game-winning run with two outs in the 11th inning as Tokyo Yakult completed a three-game sweep of Yomiuri.Saburo Omura had an RBI single to open the scoring in the fourth before Hayato Sakamoto's solo shot in the fifth gave the Giants a 2-0 lead. Yakult rallied in the eighth, which featured Josh Whitesell's game-tying RBI single.Yomiuri fell 10 games below .500.
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