Dragons ground Eagles
The Chunichi Dragons took the wind from beneath the Rakuten Eagles’ wings for a night, Yudai Kawai firing eight scoreless innings to ground the Pacific League’s third-place team.
Kawai (2-1) shut the Eagles down on three hits, walking one and fanning three, and Tony Blanco slugged his ninth homer as the Central League's front-running Dragons won 3-0 on Thursday at The Kleenex Box.
The Eagles, who were batting an interleague-best .294 in five games against the CL coming in, hit into two double plays and failed to reach base in 19 of their last 20 at-bats.
Rakuten saw its winning streak snapped at three.
Hitoki Iwase slammed the door in the ninth for his Japan-best 17th save, 57th in interleague play.
Blanco’s two-run homer in the second was his only hit, and Motonobu Tanishige had two hits -- including a clutch RBI single in the ninth for insurance -- as Chunichi improved to 3-2 vs. the PL.
MARINES 6, SWALLOWS 1
Rookie lefty Takahiro Fujioka (4-1) bobbed and weaved through six-plus innings, and Tadahito Iguchi socked his fourth longball as Lotte cruised past Yakult for a sweep at The Q.
Shunichi Nemoto had three hits and Ikuhiro Kiyota doubled in a pair of runs for the Marines, who won their sixth straight at home. Fujioka worked around eight hits and four walks with the help of five Ks.
Tatsuya Uchi rescued Fujioka from a bases-loaded, none-out jam in the seventh to help preserve the starter’s first win since April 30.
*Interleague count
PL 21, CL 14, 1 TIE
[Edited by: jgibson on May 26, 2012 12:09 AM]
The Chunichi Dragons took the wind from beneath the Rakuten Eagles’ wings for a night, Yudai Kawai firing eight scoreless innings to ground the Pacific League’s third-place team.
Kawai (2-1) shut the Eagles down on three hits, walking one and fanning three, and Tony Blanco slugged his ninth homer as the Central League's front-running Dragons won 3-0 on Thursday at The Kleenex Box.
The Eagles, who were batting an interleague-best .294 in five games against the CL coming in, hit into two double plays and failed to reach base in 19 of their last 20 at-bats.
Rakuten saw its winning streak snapped at three.
Hitoki Iwase slammed the door in the ninth for his Japan-best 17th save, 57th in interleague play.
Blanco’s two-run homer in the second was his only hit, and Motonobu Tanishige had two hits -- including a clutch RBI single in the ninth for insurance -- as Chunichi improved to 3-2 vs. the PL.
MARINES 6, SWALLOWS 1
Rookie lefty Takahiro Fujioka (4-1) bobbed and weaved through six-plus innings, and Tadahito Iguchi socked his fourth longball as Lotte cruised past Yakult for a sweep at The Q.
Shunichi Nemoto had three hits and Ikuhiro Kiyota doubled in a pair of runs for the Marines, who won their sixth straight at home. Fujioka worked around eight hits and four walks with the help of five Ks.
Tatsuya Uchi rescued Fujioka from a bases-loaded, none-out jam in the seventh to help preserve the starter’s first win since April 30.
*Interleague count
PL 21, CL 14, 1 TIE
[Edited by: jgibson on May 26, 2012 12:09 AM]