Fight the big fight

Fighting back
Look at Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters’ 16-run explosion on Monday this way: There was no way the defending Pacific League champions could afford to lose three straight at home to start the season.
From that point of view, D.J. Houlton had little chance of winning, but 16-5? Shinji Takahashi had two hits and three RBIs as the Fighters sent 14 men to the plate in a 10-run second inning --the team’s biggest frame since Aug. 20, 1966-- and salvaged the finale of their season-opening three-game series with the Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks.
Houlton had a bad day, or skipper Koji Akiyama picked a bad day to the send the righty out there. He surrendered a career-worst nine runs on six hits and three walks in 1.1 innings.
Kensuke Tanaka had three hits and an RBI, and Makoto Kaneko had two hits, including a bases-clearing double in the second, as the Fighters parlayed 15 hits and seven walks off five SoftBank hurlers into their first win of the season.
The victory was also the 500th of Nippon Ham skipper Masataka Nashida’s career, making him the 25th manager to reach that mark.

MARINES 13, LIONS 2
Kazuya Fukuura homered and doubled for three RBIs, and Tsuyoshi Nishioka had a triple and three RBIs as the Chiba Lotte Marines won the rubber game against the Saitama Seibu Lions 13-2 to capture the series win in the three-game opening set.
Third-year righty Yuki Karakawa tossed a complete game, allowing a pair of runs on five hits and a walk, while fanning 11. He stopped a personal three-game losing streak to the Lions.
But the offense that took command early. Fukuura capped a three-run rally in the second with an RBI laser off the wall in the right that went for a single. He followed that with a long homer to right in the third inning. The blast was the 18-year veteran’s 100th career longball.
The Marines, who were fifth last season, are a game over .500 for the first time since April 5 of last year while under Bobby Valentine.
BUFFALOES 5, EAGLES 4
Greg LaRocca’s two-run homer in the sixth inning gave the Orix Buffaloes a 5-4 win and a sweep in their opening series with the Tohoku Rakuten Eagles.
The Buffaloes have won three straight to start the season for the first time since 2000.
LaRocca, who had hit fouled a ball off his leg in his previous at-bat, went into a home run trot the moment he left the batter’s box at Kobe’s Skymark Stadium.
“[It felt] very good. I’m glad I didn’t hit it off my shin again,” said LaRocca, who hit .364 with a homer in the series. It was his first longball since he went deep against Rakuten last June 27.
“You just want to get good wood on it. Hopefully we can ride this out the Nippon championship.”
Mamoru Kishida came on to fire six innings of relief, his longest outing out of the pen, to earn the win. He allowed two hits and a walk for a run in the ninth, but skipper Akinobu Okada stayed with him to close it out. That raises questions, though, about who will close for the first-place-in-March Buffaloes.