Murton gets hit but Tigers fall
Hanshin's Matt Murton came up with a single in his final at-bat, but that was virtually the Tigers' only shining moment.
The Yokohama BayStars, meanwhile, had a banner night with a five-run fourth inning, highlighted by Keijiro Matsumoto's two-run triple that carried them to a 5-3 victory Thursday night before a season-low 24,688 at Koshien Stadium.
Murton, in a close race for the Central League batting title collected his 176th hit and is at .311, four points behind Yomiuri's Hisayoshi Chono.
It was the first pro triple for the third-year Matsumoto, who has 209 career at-bats.
Noriharu Yamazaki followed Matsumoto with an RBI single and Tatsuya Shimozono capped the outburst with a double to essentially chase loser Tatsuya Kojima (1-2).
Veteran hurler Daisuke Miura (5-6) got the win, yielding three runs on six hits and three walks with three Ks over eight-plus innings.
Craig Brazell hit a second-inning solo blast for the Tigers, who have four games left while the Giants have one.
CARP 2, DRAGONS 1
Kenta Maeda fanned 15 -- one shy of the CL record -- over seven innings, and Yuta Shirahama's first pro hit was a walk-off single in the ninth as Hiroshima edged Chunichi at The Zoom.
Shirahama, an eight-year pro who came into the game 0-for-7 after never playing on the first team until this month, took a Chen Wei-yin (8-10) pitch to left with two outs to win it.
Murton gets hit but Tigers fall
Hanshin's Matt Murton came up with a single in his final at-bat, but that was virtually the Tigers' only shining moment.
The Yokohama BayStars, meanwhile, had a banner night with a five-run fourth inning, highlighted by Keijiro Matsumoto's two-run triple that carried them to a 5-3 victory Thursday night before a season-low 24,688 at Koshien Stadium.
Murton, in a close race for the Central League batting title collected his 176th hit and is at .311, four points behind Yomiuri's Hisayoshi Chono.
It was the first pro triple for the third-year Matsumoto, who has 209 career at-bats.
Noriharu Yamazaki followed Matsumoto with an RBI single and Tatsuya Shimozono capped the outburst with a double to essentially chase loser Tatsuya Kojima (1-2).
Veteran hurler Daisuke Miura (5-6) got the win, yielding three runs on six hits and three walks with three Ks over eight-plus innings.
Craig Brazell hit a second-inning solo blast for the Tigers, who have four games left while the Giants have one.
CARP 2, DRAGONS 1
Kenta Maeda fanned 15 -- one shy of the CL record -- over seven innings, and Yuta Shirahama's first pro hit was a walk-off single in the ninth as Hiroshima edged Chunichi at The Zoom.
Shirahama, an eight-year pro who came into the game 0-for-7 after never playing on the first team until this month, took a Chen Wei-yin (8-10) pitch to left with two outs to win it.