Yoshinobu Yamamoto (Orix), last year’s four-time World Series champion, has recorded his ninth win of the season.
Yamamoto started the game against the SoftBank Hawks on Friday at the PayPay Dome in Fukuoka, Japan, and pitched eight innings (114 pitches), allowing one run on six hits with nine strikeouts and no walks. He gave up one run on a solo home run. It was his second solo home run of the season.
Yamamoto has been dominant in his last three starts, posting dominant starts (eight innings of one run or less) with eight innings of one run, nine innings of one run, and eight innings of one run.
Yamamoto, the league’s all-time wins leader, has nine wins, two shy of the second-most wins (seven). He is second in ERA (1.74) and second in strikeouts (103).
The Oryx held off the tying run in the bottom of the ninth to win 3-2. With the win, the Oryx improved to 47 wins, 2 ties, and 32 losses, while SoftBank improved to 43 wins, 2 ties, and 35 losses. The first-place Oryx is now 3.5 games behind third-place SoftBank. 토토
Yamamoto gave up a leadoff single to Akira Nakamura in the first inning. He struck out Gensuke Kondo on a 146-kilometer forkball and Yuki Yanagita on a 148-kilometer one-bound forkball to end the inning.
The second inning ended with a triple play. She retired the next three batters on a strikeout, a grounder to third base and a grounder to shortstop. The third inning was also a triple play. Two fly balls to right field and a line drive to shortstop.
Fourth inning. Back-to-back singles to Daisei Makihara and Gondo put runners on first and third with no outs. Yanagita hit a short fly ball to left field for the first out, but the runners were stranded at third.
Ryoya Kurihara grounded to the first baseman, but the runner at third was tagged out at home, leaving runners on second and third with no outs. Against the Death Spirits, he threw a 157-kilometer fastball, his highest pitch of the day, to get a strikeout to end the inning.
In the fifth inning, Mimori led off with a single to right. A sacrifice bunt put runners on first and second, but a fly ball to left field and a grounder to shortstop ended the inning.
The sixth inning was a triple play with eight pitches. A grounder, a strikeout, and a fly ball shut down the opposition’s 2-4 center field lineup.
With two outs and a 2-0 lead in the seventh, Yamamoto allowed Mimori to hit a two-pitch forkball (140 km/h) up the middle for a solo home run over the right field fence.
In the eighth inning, he struck out pinch-hitter Tatsuru Yanagimachi on a 154-kilometer fastball and got Nakamura to fly out on a 155-kilometer fastball. Two batters later, he singled to right, but Gondo fanned him on three pitches, including a 155-mph fastball and a curveball (128 mph) for a swinging strike.
The Oryx added a run in the top of the ninth to take a 3-1 lead. The Orix brought in Koichiro Yamazaki in relief in the ninth inning.
Yamazaki gave up back-to-back singles to Yanagita and Kurihara to put runners on first and second with no outs. Despaigne grounded out to third to put runners on second and third, but Mimori singled to right to cut the deficit to 3-2. He then issued a walk and was replaced by Yuki Udagawa. With runners on second and third, Udagawa got pinch-hitter Hikaru Kawase to fly out to center field to preserve the one-run victory.