Sky high …

Hawks clear 1st round interleague unbeaten

Not even losing their starting pitcher could knock the SoftBank Hawks off course.

Tsuyoshi Wada (4-1) delivered 5.1 scoreless innings but had to leave after taking a liner off his right ankle. The Hawks, though, didn’t miss a step, blanking the Chunichi Dragons 6-0 in interleague action on Wednesday at FYJ Dome.

The victory left the Pacific League-leading Hawks at 10-0-2 at the halfway point against the Central League, extending their winning streak to 10 -- longest in six years.

“We’ve only gone through half of the [interleague] games so we’ve got go through them again,” SoftBank skipper Koji Akiyama said on a night the PL took five of six games from the CL.

“The PL teams are playing well,” he said, dissing the CL teams as noncontenders and adding, “we’re going to try and go out and win each game. We’re playing well, we just want to keep it going.”

Wada -- who won 20th career interleague game -- held the Dragons off the scoreboard on four hits with no walks and four Ks, and Masahiko Morifuku started a 3.2-inning scoreless relief effort with 1.2 frames of one-hit pitching.

Loser Chen Wei-yin (2-2) gave up a second-inning run on Katsuki Yamazaki’s seeing-eye single to center and five others knocked in runs to back a second consecutive shutout of the Dragons, who have lost nine straight at FYJ Dome.

EAGLES 3, CARP 0

Fifth-year righty Masahiro Tanaka (4-2) and two relievers sent Hiroshima to its fourth straight shutout loss and kept the Carp scoreless for a club-record 44th straight inning in a win at The Kleenex Box.

Tanaka scattered six hits and plunked a batter to lower his ERA to 1.50 and win his career 50th game.

LIONS 4, GIANTS 1

Ace Hideaki Wakui (4-2) tossed his third straight complete game, holding Yomiuri to three hits with no walks and six Ks for his 20th career interleague victory, and Takeya Nakamura clubbed his 37th longball vs. the CL as host Seibu cruised.

Wakui, who dropped his ERA to a PL-best 1.43, is tied with SoftBank hurler Wada for most career interleague wins with 20. He needed only a career-low 102 pitches.


FIGHTERS 1, TIGERS 0

Yu Darvish (7-1) fired a four-hitter with no walks and eight Ks to beat Hanshin and help Nippon Ham toss its fourth shutout and post a PL-record streak of 41 consecutive scoreless innings.

Darvish, who leads Japan with seven wins, set a career high and tied a franchise record by extending his scoreless innings streak to 35.

SWALLOWS 3, MARINES 2

Josh Whitesell’s tiebreaking RBI double in the seventh put Yakult on top by a run and closer Lim Chang Yang finished up a strong effort on the mound with his 11th save in a victory over Lotte at The Q.

The Marines, who lost Ikuhiro Kiyota to a broken
right index finger after he was plunked in the fourth inning, stranded 14 runners in the loss.

BUFFALOES 5, BAYSTARS 2

Alfredo Figaro (4-2) held Yokohama to two runs over six innings, and Takahiro “T.O.” Okada drove in two as Orix scored at least five runs for the first time in a month to win at Kyocera Dome.