NAGOYA – Kazuki Yoshimi threw his first shutout of the season as the Chunichi Dragons handed the struggling Yomiuri Giants their fourth consecutive defeat to move into second place, dicing up a power-laden lineup in a 3-0 win on Thursday.
Chunichi won its seventh in a row and moved into second for the first time since May 22.
Yoshimi (11-6) struck out 11, allowed five singles and walked one in a 123-pitch outing at Nagoya Dome. It was his first shutout since July 18, 2009. Tetsuya Utsumi (7-6) took the loss for Yomiuri, which fell into third place.
Masahiro Araki had a two-run, bases-loaded single in the second and Kohei Oda cushioned the lead with an RBI double in the seventh.
Swallows 7, Carp 2
At Hiroshima’s Mazda Stadium, Shinya Miyamoto keyed a five-run first inning with a three-run homer, Yoshinori Sato limited the damage to two runs in eight innings and Tokyo Yakult romped over Hiroshima.
Kazuhiro Hatakeyama got the Swallows on board with a two-run single before Miyamoto’s shot off Eric Stultz (4-9) to the stands in left-center for a 5-0 lead.
Tigers 10, BayStars 4
At Yokohama Stadium, Takahiro Arai drove in six runs, featuring a tiebreaking two-run single in a three-run third inning, and Central League leader Hanshin chipped away to beat lowly Yokohama for its fifth win in a row.
All of Hanshin’s starting nine had at least one hit in the 15-hit attack.
PACIFIC LEAGUE
Marines 7, Fighters 0
At Tokyo Dome, Yuki Karakawa pitched a four-hitter for his first shutout this year, Saburo Omura hit a grand slam and Chiba Lotte routed Hokkaido Nippon Ham.
After Lotte loaded the bases with two outs in the sixth inning, Omura went deep to right-center off rookie Masaru Nakamura (1-1) for a 4-0 lead.
Lions 5, Hawks 1
At Seibu Dome, Jose Fernandez hit a tiebreaking leadoff homer in the fourth inning and added a two-run single an inning later, helping front-running Seibu win the rubber match in a three-game series against Fukuoka Softbank.
Ryoma Nogami (2-2) threw one-run ball over seven solid innings.
Buffaloes 6, Eagles 5
At Kobe’s Skymark Stadium, Shinji Shimoyama hit a dramatic game-ending homer off Hiroshi Katayama (1-2) leading off the ninth inning to lift Orix to a win over Tohoku Rakuten.
Mamoru Kishida (6-5) won in relief. The Buffaloes’ Tomotaka Sakaguchi tied the game 5-5 with an RBI single in the sixth and went 3-for-5 with two RBIs.
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