NAGOYA – Kosuke Fukudome went 5-for-5 with six RBIs and homered twice, powering the Chunichi Dragons to an 8-1 triumph over the Yokohama BayStars in the Central League on Sunday.
Hiroki Kokubo hits his second home run of the game as the Yomiuri Giants trounce the Yakult Swallows 14-3.Fukudome’s first homer came on a two-run shot to put Chunichi on the board in the second and he tacked on another run on a double to left field in the third at Nagoya Dome.
A three-run blast by Fukudome capped the scoring in the eighth, helping to make a winner out of Masafumi Hirai (2-3), who gave up one run in six innings of work.
Ken Kadokura (0-2) was sent to an early shower after recording just two outs in the opening frame for the BayStars, who hammered out 11 hits but scored just once.
Giants 14, Swallows 3
At Tokyo Dome, Takayuki Shimizu, Shinnosuke Abe and Makoto Osuga each homered and Hiroki Kokubo drove in five runs and went deep twice in a long-ball hit parade that powered Yomiuri to victory over Yakult.
Yuya Kubo (3-2) surrendered 11 hits but limited the damage to three runs in a 116-pitch complete game effort. The Giants jumped out to an 11-0 lead in the first two innings, featuring Abe’s 21st homer of the season in the seven-run second.
Carp at Tigers — ppd.