Yutaro Watanabe of the Seibu Lions pitches in a Pacific League game against the Rakuten Eagles at Rakuten Seimei Park Miyagi on Oct. 17, 2021. (Kyodo)
TOKYO (Kyodo) -- Rookie Yutaro Watanabe threw six scoreless innings, and Takeya Nakamura launched a two-run home run Sunday for the Seibu Lions, who survived a late rally to beat Pacific League rivals the Rakuten Eagles 6-5.
Watanabe (4-4) exited with the fifth-place Lions in command 6-0 at Rakuten Seimei Park Miyagi as he outdueled opposing starter Masahiro Tanaka (4-8) before a three-run blast from Tsuyoshi Yamasaki brought the Eagles back into the contest in the seventh.
A two-run rally in the final frame threatened to undo Watanabe's work before Ryosuke Moriwaki replaced Reed Garret with two out and the bases loaded. The righty coaxed a flyout from Eigoro Mogi to end the game and prevent the third-place Eagles from extending their lead over the fourth-place SoftBank Hawks.
The 21-year-old Watanabe fanned five, allowing four hits and four walks.
Nakamura chased former major league All-Star Tanaka with his two-run big fly that capped a four-run rally in the fifth. In 4-2/3 innings, Tanaka gave up five earned runs on eight hits and two walks while striking out five.
Seiji Kawagoe put the Lions on the board with an RBI single in the fourth, while an RBI double from Sosuke Genda and a Takumi Kuriyama sacrifice fly made it 3-0 before Nakamura stepped to the plate in the fifth.
The right-handed slugger got a 1-2 fastball over the middle of the plate and launched it high over left center for his 18th homer. He went 2-for-4 to pace the Lions offense along with Genda, who finished 3-for-4 with a run and two RBIs.
At Sapporo Dome, Naoyuki Uwasawa (12-6) allowed three runs over six innings as the Nippon Ham Fighters edged the PL-leading Orix Buffaloes 4-3.
At Yokohama Stadium, Tetsuto Yamada drove in five runs, including a three-run homer in the ninth, as the Central League-leading Yakult Swallows beat the DeNA BayStars 7-3.
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