Hits for the D.J. …

Cabrera delivers late as Hawks top Giants

A few hits made SoftBank’s D.J. sing the praises of his teammates after Thursday’s win at Tokyo Dome.

Pinch-hitter Alex Cabrera laced a two-out, two-run, go-ahead double in the eighth inning that boosted the Hawks past the Yomiuri Giants 2-1 and gave D.J. Houlton his sixth victory.

SoftBank is unbeaten in eight interleague games, and Houlton has been almost unbeatable at 6-1. He worked seven innings of one-run ball and Cabrera came up with the game-winning hit after Yuya Hasegawa and pinch-hitter Nobuhiko Matsunaka, a two-time Pacific League MVP, each produced two-out singles to set the table.

Houlton, who joined the Hawks in 2008 and won 11 games the next year, said to have players the quality of Cabrera and Matsunaka on the Hawks’ bench shows the team’s depth.

“Well you know having two guys like Matsunaka and Cabrera on the bench is ridiculous,” Houlton told JBD via e-mail about the pair, which has combined to win three PL home run titles. “Both of those are still elite players so that helps a lot.

“That's tough for a starting pitcher to face those guys in the eighth inning when you're so deep in the game,” he said of loser Shun Tono (1-5), who fanned a career-high-tying 12 but couldn’t get the Hawks off the board in the eighth to lose his fifth straight decision.

The Giants, who have lost four straight, have gone a club-record 34 games into the season without a complete. The Hawks went a season-high 13 games over .500.

MARINES 4, TIGERS 1

PL RBI leader Tadahito Iguchi blasted a three-run longball in the first inning and that was all Yoshihisa Naruse (4-2) needed to bury lifeless Hanshin at Koshien Stadium.

Naruse yielded just one run, unearned, on five hits and two walks over eight innings as the Marines won their second straight and the Tigers fell for the sixth time in seven games.

Hanshin’s Matt Murton in the eighth inning flipped a ball in the stands after making a catch for what he thought was the inning’s final out, costing the Tigers a run in the loss.

DRAGONS 4, FIGHTERS 0

Chen Wei-yin (2-1) didn’t allow a runner to touch third, firing eight shutout innings -- and getting a couple of sparkling plays behind him -- as Chunichi rebounded from being held scoreless the previous night with the team’s fifth shutout of the season, topping Nippon Ham at Nagoya Dome.

Kazuhiro Wada smacked his fourth longball, a two-run shot in the third inning, and Tony Blanco and callup Atsushi Fujii added RBI hits to back Chen, who scattered three hits and two walks with a half-dozen Ks.

BAYSTARS 2, EAGLES 1

Shuichi Murata blasted his seventh longball, a two-clutch run shot in the sixth to break up a scoreless game and lead host Yokohama past Rakuten and Masahiro Tanaka (3-2).

Murata increased his all-time interleague mark for homers to 42.

SWALLOWS 3, BUFFALOES 1

Yoshinori Sato (5-2) fanned a career-high 13 over eight innings, and Wladimir Balentien knocked in two with a first-inning, bases-loaded single as Yakult scored early and held off Orix at Jingu Stadium.

Sato lowered his ERA to 1.77 and tied for the CL lead in wins.

LIONS 3, CARP 2

Takumi Kuriyama’s two-out, opposite-field double in the 10th broke a 2-2 tie and gave Seibu the win over Hiroshima at The Zoom.

Rookie Kazuhisa Makita (3-3) surrendered two runs on seven hits -- thanks in large part to a running game-saving catch by Kuriyama in the ninth -- and a walk to earn the win.



[Edited by: jgibson on May 27, 2011 8:51 PM]