Kanemoto clubs Tigers to victory

NISHINOMIYA, Hyogo Pref. – Tomoaki Kanemoto drove home the winning run in the bottom of the 10th inning with his second homer of the night Friday, giving the Central League front-running Hanshin Tigers a 5-4 “sayonara” victory over the Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters for their fourth win in a row.

Michihiro Ogasawara of the Fighters slides home safely as he just beats the tag of
Hanshin catcher Toshihiro Noguchi during the sixth inning of Friday’s game at Koshien
Stadium.

Kanemoto drove the first pitch from Yukiya Yokoyama over the center-field wall at Koshien Stadium after Nippon Ham wasted a scoring opportunity with one out and a runner on third in the 10th.

Kanemoto also hit a two-run homer in the first.

Jeff Williams (2-1) worked two scoreless innings for the win. Nippon Ham lost its eighth straight and is winless in its last 12 games.

Marines 6, Dragons 2

In Nagoya, Naoyuki Shimizu took a perfect game into the seventh inning and the Lotte offense backed him with 10 hits as the Pacific League leader beat Chunichi.

Saburo Omura hit a two-run triple to put the Marines on the board in the third.

Shimizu (6-4) retired the first 20 batters he faced, allowing five hits and striking out 11 in his fifth complete game of the season.

Giants 5, Lions 3

At Tokyo Dome, Kazuhiro Kiyohara and Shinnosuke Abe hit back-to-back solo homers off Koji Onuma (3-5) as Yomiuri took a 2-1 lead in the fourth inning and went on for a victory over Seibu.

Tuffy Rhodes homered in the seventh for Yomiuri.

Kiyohara moved into a tie for sixth on the all-time home run list with his 504th.

Buffaloes 5, BayStars 1

Former major leaguer Masato Yoshii pitched six effective innings to win his third straight decision as Orix snapped its three-game losing skid while ending Yokohama’s winning streak at five.

Hawks 2, Swallows 0

Julio Zuleta hit a two-run homer and Shinji Kurano combined with four relievers on a six-hit shutout, leading Softbank past Yakult for its third straight victory.

Carp 5, Eagles 3

Masafumi Suenaga hit a tiebreaking sacrifice fly and Shigenobu Shima singled home an insurance run as Hiroshima beat Rakuten with a three-run rally in the seventh.