While you never want to get too caught up in a series in early June, the results from Sendai over the weekend are well worth remembering as the season stretches onward.
Masataka Nashida's Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles poured cold water on the red-hot Hiroshima Carp over the weekend, taking two of three in an interleague series that featured the first-place teams in the Central and Pacific Leagues.
The Carp won the opener and stretched their winning streak to six, after the Eagles were forced to change starting pitchers hours before the game because of Takahiro Shiomi suffering from a lower-back ailment. From there, it was Eagles pitcher Manabu Mima shutting down Japan's top offense with eight innings of one-run ball on Saturday and Kazuya Fujita coming up with a tiebreaking hit in the eighth inning on Sunday, with both wins capped off by saves from Yuki Matsui. Even more impressively, Rakuten did it without ace Takahiro Norimoto ever taking the ball.