HIROSHIMA – The Yokohama BayStars won their second elimination game of the postseason, beating the Hiroshima Carp 3-0 in Game 3 of the Central League Climax Series Final Stage on Friday.
Four days after winning the do-or-die Game 3 of the first stage against the Yomiuri Giants, Elian Herrera hit a two-run homer as the BayStars kept the Carp from booking their berth in the Japan Series.
As league champs, the Carp began the series with a one-win advantage and after two straight shutout wins, and needed only a win or a tie to reach the Japan Series since 1991.
Shoichi Ino, who was 3-3 with a 2.45 ERA against the Carp this season, allowed three hits and three walks in seven innings to outpitch veteran Hiroki Kuroda. With good run on his fastball and lots of movement on his slider, Ino had trouble finding the strike zone at first, but found his rhythm and — with the exception of red-hot leadoff man Kosuke Tanaka — had little trouble.
“Tanaka hit me well, but that didn’t bother me because during the regular season, I’d been able to shut down their top three hitters,” said Ino, who opened the season with a win here against Hiroshima. “Oddly enough, the atmosphere here didn’t feel any different from the regular season. In fact, I was far more nervous here on Opening Day.”
In the fourth, Herrera ended the BayStars’ scoreless streak at 21 innings, getting the BayStars in gear at Mazda Stadium with a two-out, two-run home run off Kuroda. After two innocuous at-bats from the BayStars Nos. 4 and 5 hitters, Toshihiko Kuramoto lined a single up the middle and the switch-hitting Herrera pounced on a 2-2 pitch from Kuroda and hammered it into the stands in right.
First-year BayStars skipper Alex Ramirez inserted Herrera into his starting lineup, but said it had been a difficult decision knowing that the infielder had struggled against Kuroda this season.
“That’s why it took me a couple of hours to put him in the lineup because I’m aware of those things,” Ramirez said, referring to Herrera’s stats. “I had a feeling he (Kuroda) was going to pitch inside him, and I told him after his first at-bat, ‘Elian, look for the inside pitch and don’t try to go the other way. Pull it.’ And that’s what he did.”
The BayStars made it 3-0 in the fifth, Takayuki Kajitani’s two-out single bringing home Masayuki Kuwahara from third. Kuwahara led off the inning with a flare that went for a double when left fielder Ryuhei Matsuyama dived for it and missed. A sacrifice moved the runner to third. After a sharp grounder to his drawn-in infield, Kuroda left a pitch over the plate and Kajitani pulled it into right.
The 41-year-old Kuroda left after five innings for a pinch hitter, having given up three runs on seven hits, while walking two and striking out two.
“Kuroda had great stuff at the start,” Carp skipper Koichi Ogata said. “If you want to call the home run ball a mistake, you can, but that was good hitting. The pitch to Kajitani was a mistake.”
BayStars reliever Tomoya Mikami took over for Ino in the eighth and things instantly got tense. Pinch hitter Ryoma Nishikawa opened with a single and Tanaka reached base for the fourth time, putting runners on the corners with a one-out single. Yoshihiro Maru loaded the bases with a gritty two-out walk against tough lefty Kenjiro Tanaka.
Cleanup hitter Takahiro Arai, who was 7-for-16 during the season with the bases loaded, hit a deep foul fly off right-hander Kota Suda that Kajitani made a great catch on in the narrow right-field foul territory to deny the Carp.
Closer Yasuaki Yamasaki sealed the deal for Yokohama with a 1-2-3 ninth inning to force a Game 4 on Saturday.
Rio Olympics silver medal-winning sprinter and Hiroshima native Ryota Yamagata threw out the ceremonial first pitch. Yamagata, who was a part of Japan’s silver-winning men’s 4×100-meter relay unit, wore hope for a sub 10-second 100 meters on his back, with a No. 9.99 Carp shirt.
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