Nippon-Ham 4, at Rakuten 2

SENDAI, Japan (Interstat) — Kotaro Kiyomiya’s three-run homer in a decisive sixth inning lifted the Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters to a 4-2 victory over the Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles on Thursday night at Kleenex Stadium Miyagi. The win gave the Fighters (7-5) the series victory, taking two of three games from their Pacific League rivals after the teams split a pair of low-scoring affairs earlier in the week. A crowd of 22,609 watched the contest, which lasted 2 hours, 53 minutes. For five innings, the game was a tense pitchers’ duel dominated by Rakuten starter Jose Urena and Nippon-Ham’s Takayuki Katoh.… Read more...