6/27: Chiba Lotte Marines 8 @ Orix Buffaloes 4

Seth Greisginer rejoined the rotation making his second start of the year, his first in over a month. 5 IP, 5H, 1K, 0BB, 2ER was enough to earn Seth a win in his first decision of 2013. The bullpen once again was relied upon to hold on to a lead, and they did exactly that in 4 innings of serviceable relief.

An Imae 2 run HR got the Lotte bats going in the first. T.Ogino added an RBI double in the 3rd, followed by an Iguchi 2 run shot for this 15th HR of the year. Saburo and Satozaki each had an RBI by way of a sac fly, in the 5th and 8th innings respectively. Okada added one more run on an “excuse me” RBI single in the 8th.

On the Orix side of the box score, certified Chiba Lotte killer Lee Dae-Ho had a 4-4 night, with two home runs.

6/28: SoftBank Hawks 10 @ Chiba Lotte Marines 5

Let’s start with how Lotte built an early 5-0 lead in the 2nd inning. After singles by Daichi Suzuki and Satozaki, Okada loaded the based on an infield single by reaching on an error with 1 out. Nemoto drew a walk to force in the first run. Next, Kakunaka smacked a hard hit 2RBI base hit past the lunging first baseman a Kakunaka ground ball was misplayed by the first baseman, resulting in an error and 2 runs. Iguchi followed with a 2-RBI single to left. It was 5-0 Lotte after 2 innings.

Despite the 5-run 2nd, SoftBank’s starter Settsu would eventually go all 9 innings for a complete game win. On the other hand, our starter Naruse would be pulled after 5 innings. As the story seems to go for our ace in 2013, a puzzling tendency to allow the home run ball would lead to yet another short outing. After 4 innings of shutout ball, Naruse gave up a 3-run homerun to Yuichi Honda to cut the lead to 5-3. The bullpen couldn’t hold this one for Naruse, as the combination of Itoh and Hattori were charged with a 6-run 6th inning, putting the Hawks out front 9-5. Lotte couldn’t stage a comeback, and eventually fell 10-5.