Rhodes, Uehara on form as Giants tame Buffaloes in interleague play

Tuffy Rhodes singled home the game winner in the eighth inning and Koji Uehara pitched a four-hitter in a complete game effort on Tuesday, lifting the Yomiuri Giants past the Orix Buffaloes 2-1 in interleague play.

Yomiuri Giants baserunner Takayuki Saito slides home safely on a single by Tuffy Rhodes while
Orix Buffaloes catcher Fumihiro Suzuki reaches out to catch the ball at Tokyo Dome on Tuesday.
The Giants won 2-1.

Rhodes saved Uehara and the Central League cellar dwellers with his two-out clutch hit off Daisuke Kato (1-1) that broke a 1-1 tie at Tokyo Dome after the game turned into a heated duel between Opening Day pitchers — Uehara and Hidetaka Kawagoe.

Uehara (4-2) limited the damage to a Cliff Brumbaugh solo shot in the fourth, struck out six and walked none in a 108-pitch outing. He went the distance for the first time since September last year.

Carp 2, Hawks 1

At Yahoo Dome, Greg Larocca homered in back-to-back at-bats off Toshiya Sugiuchi and handed the southpaw his first loss of the season.

Hiroki Kuroda (5-1) held Softbank to a run and four hits in a complete game and helped his team return to .500 with a 15-15-1 record. Sugiuchi (5-1) also went the distance, striking out nine and yielding six hits along the way.

Swallows 4, Fighters 2

At Jingu Stadium, Ken Suzuki carried a pitch by Ken Kamakura (2-1) down the right-field line for a tie-breaking two-run single with the bases loaded in the sixth inning.

Shohei Tateyama (2-1) allowed two runs and six hits while striking out eight over seven innings, and Ryota Igarashi, who recently returned from a hamstring injury, worked a perfect ninth for his first save since April 8.

Lions 2, Dragons 1

At Invoice Seibu Dome, Alex Cabrera led off the ninth inning with a “sayonara” homer off Shinya Okamoto (3-2).

Kazuyuki Hoashi (3-2) pitched eight scoreless innings after allowing Chunichi to get on the board on an RBI double by Hirokazu Ibata in the first. He allowed four hits, struck out two and walked two in his first complete game of the season.

BayStars 9, Eagles 2

At Fullcast Stadium, Shuichi Murata and Ryoji Aikawa both doubled and combined for three runs in a nine-hit, seven-run outburst in the sixth inning.

Ken Kadokura (1-1) allowed two runs and seven hits for his first complete game win in five years. Hiroki Yamamura (0-3) was charged with five runs in five-plus innings and lost his third in as many decisions.

Marines 3, Tigers 0

At Chiba Marine Stadium, Shingo Ono (4-1) headed a four-man shutout relay and pitched a six-hitter over 6 2/3 innings.

Kazuya Fukuura opened the scoring with an RBI single in the first, Koichi Hori singled in the second run in the third and Toshiaki Imai doubled in the third run in the fourth off Shinobu Fukuhara (1-5), who struck out nine over the distance but lost his fifth consecutive decision.