June 11th, 2008
Tokyo Yakult Swallows 5 
Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles 3
Streak: Won 1
(Away Game: Kleenex Stadium)
Outfielder Fukuchi was the man of the evening, batting in 3 runs as the Swallows defeated the high-flying Eagles in a see-saw game in Sendai.
Ishikawa pitched another solid outing, giving up 2 runs off 6 hits in seven innings for a no-decison.
The Eagles took a two run lead in the third but the Swallows hit back in the sixth off Rakuten starter Nagai to tie the game with the first of Fukuchi’s RBIs, followed by a solo homer from Shinya Miyamoto. Yakult then took the lead in the 7th as Tanaka hit a single to centre to bring home Yuichi.
With reliever Oshimoto taking the mound in the bottom of the 8th, Yakult looked to be cruising to their first win in 4 games, but two big errors from third baseman Keizo Kawashima allowed the Eagles to draw level at 3-3.
With the game tied after 9 innings, the game went into the 10th, with Fukuchi hitting a 2 run triple off Eagles reliever Koyama to put the birds up 5-3. Lim then pitched a perfect 10th inning for his 15th save of the year, and that was that.
Matsuoka took the win for Yakult in relief for his 2nd win of the season.
The two teams return to the Kleenex for their final matchup of the year tomorrow night.
[...] Two-game series versus Rakuten (June 11th, 2008): This game was played in Sendai. Tokyo won this one in the top of the 10th inning. Tanaka reached safely on a walk, and then Takeuchi bunted to move him over. The bunt was shown to be wasteful as Fukuchi ended up hitting a triple to bring both Tanaka and Kawashima around to score (Kawashima also drew a base on balls after Taekuchi’s sacrifice). Rakuten tried the sacrifice bunt in the bottom of the 8th, but it didn’t result in a run. Tokyo won 5-3. [...]