Sawamura pitches, hits Giants to 7th straight win
Hirokazu Sawamura was nearly a one-man show on Sunday at Tokyo Dome.
Sawamura (4-3) carried a no-no into the seventh inning and came up with a two-run double in a four-run fourth to push the Yomiuri Giants past the SoftBank Hawks 5-1 for a season-long seven-game winning streak.
Sawamura recorded his sixth consecutive quality start, going 6.2 innings and yielding a run on three hits while fanning five and walking none.
Keisuke Kaneko broke up his no-hit bid with a leadoff single in the seventh, and two hits later Sawamura was in the showers.
John Bowker had two doubles and an RBI, and Hayato Sakamoto socked his fourth longball, a solo shot to open the fourth for the Giants.
DRAGONS 6, LIONS 2
Kazuhiro Wada tripled in two to break a 2-2 tie in the eighth as Chunichi came to life late and rallied past Seibu at Nagoya Dome.
The Dragons got even on reliever Atsushi Okamoto's throwing error, which opened the flood gates for a five-run uprising. Tony Blanco had three hits and an RBI for Chunichi.
FIGHTERS 5, CARP 4
Tetsuya Kokubo's throwing error allowed the go-ahead run to score in a five-run ninth that pushed Nippon Ham past stunned Hiroshima at The Zoom.
Eiichi Koyano extended the game with a two-run double off Dennis Sarfate (0-4), who couldn't clean up Takeru Imamura's mess.
BAYSTARS 5, MARINES 1
Daisuke Miura (5-1) worked seven scoreless innings, and Yoshitomo Tsutsugo and Norihiro Nakamura homered as Yokohama topped PL-leading Lotte at home.
Nakumura's homer, a two-run shot for his fourth longball of the season, made him the 38th player to record 1,000 RBIs as the CL-cellar-dwelling BayStars split their two home games against Lotte.
EAGLES 10, TIGERS 6
Ginji Akaminai went 4-for-4 with four RBIs and Jose Fernandez had three hits, three RBIs and a sparkling defensive play as Rakuten won at Koshien and sent Hanshin to its fourth straight loss.
Fernandez flagged a smash off the bat of Takashi Toritani in the fifth inning and fired to the pitcher covering to save at least one run with the bases loaded and the Eagles ahead by a run.
BUFFALOES 4, SWALLOWS 2
Takahiro “T.O.” Okada’s scoring groundout in the fifth put Orix up, and Lee Dae Ho added insurance with a ninth-inning two-run homer as the Buffaloes swept their two-game set at Jingu Stadium.
Aarom Balidiris also homered, a solo blast for his fifth longball, as the Buffaloes recovered from a two-game sweep at the hands of the Giants.
*Interleague count
PL 13, CL 10, 1 TIE
[Edited by: jgibson on Jun 27, 2012 9:20 PM]
Hirokazu Sawamura was nearly a one-man show on Sunday at Tokyo Dome.
Sawamura (4-3) carried a no-no into the seventh inning and came up with a two-run double in a four-run fourth to push the Yomiuri Giants past the SoftBank Hawks 5-1 for a season-long seven-game winning streak.
Sawamura recorded his sixth consecutive quality start, going 6.2 innings and yielding a run on three hits while fanning five and walking none.
Keisuke Kaneko broke up his no-hit bid with a leadoff single in the seventh, and two hits later Sawamura was in the showers.
John Bowker had two doubles and an RBI, and Hayato Sakamoto socked his fourth longball, a solo shot to open the fourth for the Giants.
DRAGONS 6, LIONS 2
Kazuhiro Wada tripled in two to break a 2-2 tie in the eighth as Chunichi came to life late and rallied past Seibu at Nagoya Dome.
The Dragons got even on reliever Atsushi Okamoto's throwing error, which opened the flood gates for a five-run uprising. Tony Blanco had three hits and an RBI for Chunichi.
FIGHTERS 5, CARP 4
Tetsuya Kokubo's throwing error allowed the go-ahead run to score in a five-run ninth that pushed Nippon Ham past stunned Hiroshima at The Zoom.
Eiichi Koyano extended the game with a two-run double off Dennis Sarfate (0-4), who couldn't clean up Takeru Imamura's mess.
BAYSTARS 5, MARINES 1
Daisuke Miura (5-1) worked seven scoreless innings, and Yoshitomo Tsutsugo and Norihiro Nakamura homered as Yokohama topped PL-leading Lotte at home.
Nakumura's homer, a two-run shot for his fourth longball of the season, made him the 38th player to record 1,000 RBIs as the CL-cellar-dwelling BayStars split their two home games against Lotte.
EAGLES 10, TIGERS 6
Ginji Akaminai went 4-for-4 with four RBIs and Jose Fernandez had three hits, three RBIs and a sparkling defensive play as Rakuten won at Koshien and sent Hanshin to its fourth straight loss.
Fernandez flagged a smash off the bat of Takashi Toritani in the fifth inning and fired to the pitcher covering to save at least one run with the bases loaded and the Eagles ahead by a run.
BUFFALOES 4, SWALLOWS 2
Takahiro “T.O.” Okada’s scoring groundout in the fifth put Orix up, and Lee Dae Ho added insurance with a ninth-inning two-run homer as the Buffaloes swept their two-game set at Jingu Stadium.
Aarom Balidiris also homered, a solo blast for his fifth longball, as the Buffaloes recovered from a two-game sweep at the hands of the Giants.
*Interleague count
PL 13, CL 10, 1 TIE
[Edited by: jgibson on Jun 27, 2012 9:20 PM]