By Jim Allen,
Hiroya Miyagi threw six scoreless innings Sunday as the Orix Buffaloes evened the best-of-seven Japan Series at one win apiece with an 8-0 Game 2 victory over the Hanshin Tigers.
Miyagi allowed four hits and a walk while striking out five for the three-time defending Pacific League champions at Orix's Kyocera Dome Osaka.
The first Japan Series between teams from western Japan's Kansai region since 1964 will move on to Hanshin's iconic Koshien Stadium in neighboring Hyogo Prefecture for Games 3, 4 and 5 starting from Tuesday.
Right-hander Yuki Nishi started for the Central League champs and allowed four runs on six hits and two walks over 3-2/3 innings against his former team, which chased him in the fourth on a two-out walk and four straight singles.
A day after Orix's ace, Yoshinobu Yamamoto, was mauled by the Tigers in an 8-0 Game 1 loss, Miyagi got a one-run lead on a Taishi Hirooka single and a Masahiro Nishino triple. The lefty then navigated a two-out pickle in the fourth and was rewarded with three more runs in the home half.
"Yoshinobu got beat so I just wanted to get back at our opponents and we did that," Miyagi said. "As soon as we had the lead I was in hot water, but my teammates got me out of trouble with their defense and then put more runs on the board."
"I was on pins and needles up until then. The runs made my job easier."
Miyagi left after 104 pitches, and Yuki Udagawa, also a member of Japan's World Baseball Classic championship team, worked a 1-2-3 seventh for Orix, and Marwin Gonazalez blasted a three-run seventh-inning pinch-hit double.
Two more 1-2-3 innings from the Orix bullpen and the series was tied.
"We've got some pretty good pitchers in the pen," Orix manager Satoshi Nakajima said. "The score was one-sided at the end but in the middle innings, it could easily have gone the other way, so we couldn't ease up."
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