 Golden Eagles re-take lead in Japanese Play-Off
Nederlands
 SENDAI (Japan) -
Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles has retaken the lead in the best-of-seven Final of the Pacific League Climax Series.
On Saturday-afternoon (October 19), the team of Andruw Jones won 2-0 vs. Chiba Lotte Marines to take a 3-1 lead and is now one win away from reaching the Japan Series.
Game 5 will be played on Sunday.
The Golden Eagles scored both runs in the second inning off of starter Takuya Furuya.
The team was retired in order in the first at bat, but then opened the score in the next frame.
Furuya first struck out Andruw Jones, then got the second out on a grounder by Casey McGehee.
But Furuya then hit Shintaro Masuda with a pitch and gave up a single to Kazuo Matsui.
The two runners then scored when catcher Motohiro Shima followed with a double.
Furuya then retired the side in order in the third and fourth inning.
He got two runners on base in the fifth via an error and single, but they stranded.
After giving up a lead-off single to Ginji Akaminai, Furuya was relieved by Yuji Nishino, who struckout Jones.
He then got the bases loaded via two walks with two outs, but the Golden Eagles this time left three runners.
In the seventh and eighth inning, the home team stranded two more runners in scoring position.
Manabu Mima went the distance for the Golden Eagles.
He struckout seven batters and gave up only four basehits.
The only time that the Marines got runners in scoring position was in the second and third inning.
In the second, the team had two runners on with two outs, but the flyout followed.
In the third, the Marines had the same situation, but this time, a line out ended the at bat.
Starting with the line drive, Mima retired 16 of the next 17 batters he faced.
In the ninth, he walked the lead-off batter, but then a double play and flyout ended the game.
(October 19)
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