SENDAI – Kazuya Fujita went 5-for-5 with four RBIs and Luis Garcia hit a two-run blast as the Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles rallied past the Chiba Lotte Marines, winning 11-6 on Tuesday to return to fourth place in the Pacific League standings.
Yoshinao Kamata (7-2) yielded four runs and eight hits in six innings. Tomohisa Otani (4-6) was chased in 3 2/3 innings after surrendering six runs for Lotte, which fell into fifth place.
Hawks 5, Lions 1
At Fukuoka’s Yahoo Dome, reliever Sho Iwasaki pitched three scoreless innings, Fukuoka Softbank took advantage of shaky lefty starter Yusei Kikuchi, and Wily Mo Pena drove in two runs in a win over Seibu.
Iwasaki (5-10) got the job done after rookie Akira Niho got the hook in his first pro start after three innings of one-run ball. Kikuchi (3-2) walked four batters in the second inning, including issuing a bases-loaded free pass to Kenta Imamiya and a sacrifice fly to Toru Hosokawa.
Pena went 2-for-4 with a two-run single to extend the lead in the seventh.
The second-place Lions, who saw the third-place Hawks move within one game of them, stranded 13 runners and lost their fourth in a row.
Fighters 6, Buffaloes 2
At Sapporo Dome, left-hander Masaru Takeda pitched his four complete game of the season and got homers by Yoshio Itoi and Micah Hoffpauir as first-place Hokkaido Nippon Ham won its second straight and extended its lead to 2 1/2 games over second-place Seibu.
Takeda (11-7) struck out nine and walked none in a 102-pitch outing. Satoshi Komatsu (3-5) was roughed up for five runs in 4-1/3 innings for cellar-dweller Orix, which lost its seventh in a row.
CENTRAL LEAGUE
Giants 9, Dragons 5
At Nagoya Dome, Hayato Sakamoto hit a game-tying gram slam in the third inning, and Yoshiyuki Kamei keyed a four-run seventh innings with a two-run single as Yomiuri pulled past Chunichi and lowered its magic number to clinch the CL title to three.
Satoshi Fukuda (7-1) got the win in relief and Kentaro Nishimura got one out for his 28th save. Reliever Jorge Sosa (5-1) was tagged with the loss for the Dragons, who saw their winning streak end at three games.
Swallows 2, Carp 1
At Hiroshima’s Mazda Stadium, Shohei Tateyama used an effective forkball to throw hitters off balance in a 13-strikeout effort over the distance, leading Tokyo Yakult past Hiroshima to win five straight and move a game over .500 for the first time since July 17.
The Carp got on the scoreboard first on Tateyama’s wild pitch in the second inning, but Wladimir Balentien hit a two-run drive for his Japanese-baseball leading 29th homer in the fifth. Keisuke Imai (2-8) took the loss for the Carp, who lost their fourth straight and seventh in eight games.
BayStars at Tigers — ppd.
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