AKITA – Hometown hero Tadashi Settsu threw a three-hitter on Wednesday night and the Fukuoka Softbank Hawks broke a scoreless tie in the ninth inning to beat the host Rakuten Eagles 3-0 at Komachi Stadium.
The win lifted the Hawks into fourth place in the Pacific League.
The Eagles, who lost their sixth straight decision, fell into fifth place.
Settsu (10-5), an Akita native, made excellent use of his sinker to hold the Eagles to just three singles. He issued three walks and struck out nine in a game in which no Rakuten runner made it as far as third base.
Eagles starter Manabu Mima pitched eight scoreless innings, allowing four hits, while walking two, hitting two and striking out six.
The Hawks, however, got to right-hander Darrell Rasner (1-2) in the ninth. Singles by Hitoshi Tamura and Wily Mo Pena set the table, and catcher Toru Hosokawa doubled in two runs. With two outs, Kenji Akashi singled home Hosokawa for the third run of the game.
Settsu’s first shutout victory of the season moved him into a tie for the league lead in wins with Chiba Lotte’s Yoshihisa Naruse.
Fighters 5, Marines 4 (10)
At Chiba’s QVC Marine Field, Yang Dai-kang’s 10th-inning RBI double plated the winning run as Hokkaido Nippon Ham won a thriller to beat Chiba Lotte for the second straight night.
The Marines tied it 3-3 in the seventh on Takashi Ogino’s second career homer.
Eiichi Koyano’s sacrifice fly put the visitors up in the top of the ninth. Lotte, however, tied in the home half on rookie Daichi Suzuki’s RBI single off Fighters closer Hisashi Takeda (4-3), who blew the save but picked up the win.
CENTRAL LEAGUE
Tigers 3, Swallows 2
At Koshien Stadium, Hanshin’s Yasutomo Kubo (3-4) allowed two runs, one earned, in seven innings as the Tigers beat Yakult and managed their first three-game winning streak since they won three and tied one from May 23 to 27.
Leadoff man Hiroki Uemoto doubled to open the first. Takashi Toritani singled him home and scored on Takahiro Arai’s double. Arai doubled and scored on a Matt Murton single in the third.
Dragons 2, Giants 2 (9)
At Tokyo Dome, Chunichi closer Hitoki Iwase allowed two hits and made a ninth-inning throwing error en route to a blown save as league-leading Yomiuri came from two runs down to salvage a tie against the second-place Dragons.
With one out and none on in the ninth, Hisayoshi Chono reached on an infield single to Japan’s saves leader Iwase, who was charged with an error on his throw as Chono went to second. Iwase surrendered a one-out RBI single to pinch hitter Yoshitomo Tani, but pitched out of a one-out, two-on jam to secure a tie.
Carp 12, BayStars 0
At Yokohama Stadium, Kenta Maeda (11-3) took over the Central League lead in wins as he allowed five hits and no walks in seven innings, while a pair of relievers each tossed a perfect inning as Hiroshima razed Yokohama.
Maeda is 4-0 against DeNA, with one earned run in 31 innings. He no-hit the BayStars on April 6.
Shota Dobayashi hit a three-run, first-inning homer, while catcher Kazuyoshi Kura went 3-for-5 with three RBIs for the Carp.
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