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Shutout streaks end for punchless Fighters
The Nippon Ham Fighters had delivered blow after blow to their Central League foes in interleague, but they took one on the chin on Saturday at Jingu Stadium.
The Yakult Swallows got to Mitsuo Yoshikawa (1-1) early, breaking the Fighters’ shutout streak at five and snapping their hurlers’ consecutive scoreless innings string at 52 in a 5-1 win before 26,559.
Yoshikawa staggered from the start, but Kazuhiro Hatakeyama led a three-run charge that floored him in the third inning, driving in the first run off Nippon Ham pitching since the sixth inning of their game on May 26 against the Chunichi Dragons.
Two other teams have 50-inning scoreless streaks, including the 1966 Yomiuri Giants and last year’s Chunichi Dragons. Nippon Ham evened the 1942 Hanshin Tigers and the Dragons with five consecutive shutouts.
But the anticipation was over early against Yoshikawa, who began the whole streak with 6.2 scoreless innings against the Hiroshima Carp on May 28.
He allowed a leadoff single in the third to Hiroyasu Tanaka and after a walk, Hatakeyama laced a single to center. Yoshio Itoi gloved it and fired home, but Tanaka was just fast enough to beat the throw home to end both Nippon Ham streaks.
The Fighters put two on in the eighth inning, but Atsunori Inaba struck out to end the inning.
HAWKS 2, TIGERS 0
Hiroki Kokubo smacked an RBI single off Atsushi Nomi (2-4) in the top of the ninth to break up a scoreless pitching duel and lift interleague front-running SoftBank past Hanshin at Koshien Stadium.
Hitoshi Tamura added an RBI double to back Toshiya Sugiuchi (3-2), who handcuffed Hanshin on two hits, walking four and fanning 11 over eight shutout innings.
MARINES 6, BAYSTARS 5
Kim Tae-kyun ended his homer drought at the perfect time, with two on in the ninth inning, as Lotte rallied past Yokohama and snapped a four-game slide.
Kim, who hadn’t homered since last Sept. 18, blasted a shot off Yokohama closer Shun Yamaguchi (1-1) to send the BayStars to their fifth loss in six games.
DRAGONS 2, LIONS 1
Ryosuke Hirata got Chunichi even with an RBI single in the ninth won it with a two-out solo blast in the 11th as the Dragons beat the 210-minute rule with a win at Nagoya Dome that stopped a three-game slide.
Hirata, whose first pro homer three years ago was a sayonara shot, had three hits to raise his average to .440 in 25 at-bats.
GIANTS 2, EAGLES 0
Lefty Tetsuya Utsumi (7-1) blanked lifeless Rakuten over seven innings and Hayato Sakamoto’s career 13th homer from the leadoff spot carried host Yomiuri, which won all four from the Eagles in interleague.
Utsumi scattered five hits and a walk and had four Ks to win his fifth straight decision, become the CL’s only seven-game winner and send the Eagles to their sixth shutout loss this season.
BUFFALOES 5, CARP 2
Takahiro “T.O.” Okada followed Tomotaka Sakaguchi’s two-run single with a two-RBI hit of his own in a four-run third as Orix dumped Hiroshima at Mazda Stadium.
The Carp have lost eight straight, their longest skid since August 2004.
[Edited by: jgibson on Jun 9, 2011 8:55 PM]