Keiichi Yabu spotted Yakult a one-run lead in the first inning, but then combined with three relievers to shut the Swallows out the rest of the way as the Hanshin Tigers notched their third win in a row with an 8-1 triumph Wednesday night at Jingu Stadium.

Right-hander Yabu (6-4) surrendered a solo homer to Shinya Miyamoto in the first inning at Jingu Stadium in Tokyo, but held the Swallows scoreless on five hits over the next six innings for his first win since May 15.

Akihiro Yano connected for a pair of triples and drove in three runs to lead Hanshin's 11-hit attack. Shinjiro Hiyama had a single and a double and scored twice for the Tigers.

Giants 9, Dragons 3
At the Tokyo Dome, Takayuki Shimizu collected four of Yomiuri's 15 hits and also banged out one of the team's four homers as the league-leading Giants beat Chunichi.

Shimizu went 4-for-5 with three RBIs to hand Yomiuri its fourth win in five games while Yoshinobu Takahashi, Hideki Matsui and Kazuhiro Kiyohara all connected for homers for the Giants.

Kiyohara, who homered for a second straight evening, connected for No. 450 to become the 11th player in Japanese baseball to reach that plateau.

Carp 3, BayStars 1
In Yokohama, Hiroki Kuroda gave up one run on nine hits over eight innings and Yasuhiro Oyamada faced only three batters in the ninth for his 18th save of the season to pace Hiroshima over the BayStars.

PACIFIC LEAGUE

Hawks 7, BlueWave 0
In Sendai, Kenichi Wakatabe notched 10 strikeouts while going the distance as Daiei saddled the Orix BlueWave with their ninth shutout loss of the season.

Foreign aces named

Yakult Swallows manager Tsutomu Wakamatsu and Osaka Kintetsu Buffaloes skipper Masataka Nashida on Wednesday each named their foreign aces to the pitching staffs for the Japanese professional baseball All-Star games next week.

Wakamatsu picked Swallows right-hander Kevin Hodges for the Central League squad while Nashida went with Buffaloes' Jeremy Powell for the Pacific League as the managers filled out their 28-man squads for next week's two-game series.

Hodges tops the CL with nine wins, against two losses, and has compiled a 2.83 earned run average in 16 games for the Swallows as of Wednesday. Powell, meanwhile, also leads the PL with nine wins (and three losses) with a 3.14 ERA in 15 games.

The choices of the fans for the all-star squads were announced Tuesday with the managers naming the remainder of their pitching staffs and reserves Wednesday.

Wakamatsu, who guided the Swallows to the Japan Series title last fall, named six members of his Yakult team to the CL squad after fans voted five members of the Yomiuri Giants and Hanshin Tigers onto the first team.

Among Wakamatsu's choices was veteran catcher Atsuya Furuta, who will be making his 13th all-star appearance.

Along with Hodges, Wakamatsu named four foreign players to the squad including Yakult outfielder Alex Ramirez, Hanshin southpaw Trey Moore and Hanshin slugger George Arias.

Nashida did not add any foreign players to the Pacific League team, other than Powell.

Hodges honored

Yakult Swallows right-hander Kevin Hodges and Chunichi Dragons infielder Kazuyoshi Tatsunami were named the top pitcher and player in the Central League for the month of June, league officials said Wednesday.

Kintetsu Buffaloes Jeremy Powell, meanwhile, claimed top pitcher honors in the Pacific League for the second straight month while Seibu Lions infielder Kazuo Matsui won the award for his third time.

Tatsunami topped the CL with 18 RBIs in June while Hodges (9-2) was chosen after leading the league with four wins.

Powell (9-3) posted five wins with a 1.80 ERA, including two straight shutout victories, during the month of June.

Matsui produced hits in all 17 game he appeared in during the month of June and hit homers in five straight games.