TOKOROZAWA, SAITAMA PREF. – Takumi Kuriyama tied the game in the bottom of the eighth inning and Yuji Onizaki hit a walk-off RBI double as the Seibu Lions won a seesaw affair against the Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks 4-3 in the Pacific League on Saturday.
SoftBank reliever Robert Suarez took the mound in the eighth with a 3-2 lead, but allowed a walk and a bunt single to put two on with one outs. Kuriyama, who went 3-for-5, singled in the tying run with two outs.
Hayato Terahara (2-1) also put two on with a single and a walk in the ninth, and with two outs, Onizaki hit a 1-0 fastball to hand the Lions their third straight win.
Seibu starter Shinsaburo Tawata gave up a leadoff single to Akira Nakamura in the first. Yuki Yanagita, who has struggled this season after his MVP campaign in 2015, tripled with one out to open the scoring.
Seibu tied it in the home half, Kuriyama doubling and scoring when Takeya Nakamura pulled a 3-0 Kodai Senga fastball off the left-field wall for a two-out RBI single. A throwing error by three-time Golden Glove-winning shortstop Kenta Imamiya handed the Lions the go-ahead run in the third after singles from Shogo Akiyama and Kuriyama put runners on the corners.
The Hawks tied it in the fifth as Akira Nakamura doubled with one out and came home on Yuichi Honda’s single off Tawata. Tawata allowed two runs on six hits, two walks and a hit batsman in five innings. He fanned three batters.
Fellow 23-year-old Senga gave up two runs on nine hits with two walks in 5-2/3 innings, while striking out four.
Nobuhiro Matsuda put SoftBank ahead in the eighth with an RBI double off reliever Esmerling Vasquez, but the PL-leading Hawks ended up on the losing side after Seibu’s Tatsushi Masuda (2-2) pitched a 1-2-3 ninth.
Fighters 5, Eagles 1
At Sapporo Dome, Kensuke Tanaka hit a go-ahead single in the third and drove in another run in the fifth with a double off Tohoku Rakuten’s Kenny Ray (0-1), while Hokkaido Nippon Ham’s Luis Mendoza (3-3) allowed a run in 6-1/3 innings for the win.
Marines 10, Buffaloes 5
At Osaka’s Kyocera Dome, Ikuhiro Kiyota broke a 1-1 tie in the third with an RBI double before Alfredo Despaigne hit a three-run homer off Orix’s Kazuki Kondo (2-1) to give Chiba Lotte the lead for good.
Rookie Ryota Sekiya (1-0) won his debut after allowing three runs in seven innings.
CENTRAL LEAGUE
Tigers 4, Carp 3
At Koshien Stadium, Hanshin reliever Marcos Mateo (1-1) blew a save in the top of the ninth on pinch hitter Tomohiro Abe’s two-run, game-tying homer, but rookie Shun Takayama hit a bases-loaded single off Hiroshima closer Shota Nakazaki (0-2) in the bottom of the inning for a walk-off win.
Dragons 6, Giants 4
At Nagoya Dome, Yomiuri reliever Seiji Tahara (2-2) blew a one-run lead in the eighth inning, when five of the six batters he faced reached base and four scored.
Chunichi’s Jordan Norberto (3-0) earned the win after allowing two runs in six innings.
Dragons reliever Shinji Tajima earned his first save, and he became the first pitcher in the two-league era to not allow a run in his first 27 games of the season.
BayStars 4, Swallows 1
At Tokyo’s Jingu Stadium, Jose Lopez hit a tiebreaking, three-run homer in the eighth, helping rookie lefty Shota Imanaga (3-4) beat Tokyo Yakult and win his third straight start.
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The Lions' Yuji Onizaki greets fans after his game-ending RBI double in the ninth inning against the Hawks on Saturday at Seibu Prince Dome. Seibu defeated Fukuoka SoftBank 4-3. | KYODO
