‘Starring role …

Leach, ’Stars shoot past streaking Giants

Yokohama BayStars lefty Brent Leach made his first start against the Yomiuri Giants at Tokyo Dome last month. He picked up his first win in Japan against them on Thursday night in with all the comforts of home.

Leach (1-2) tossed eight strong innings on a steamy night at Yokohama Stadium, and the Mississippi native tossed around a few "ya’lls" in the hero interview after a 5-2 victory that snapped Yomiuri’s seven-game winning streak.

Leach allowed two runs on seven hits -- including Kazunari Sanematu’s mammoth solo blast -- and a walk, while fanning nine before handing off to closer Shun Yamaguchi after 107 pitches.

“I made that one big mistake when the guy hit a long home run on me -- other than that, I felt good out there and hopefully I can continue the success,” said Leach, who also doubled in what proved to be the deciding run in the fourth.

Leach enjoyed a chuckle about his second hit in three games.

“I got lucky because when I hit it, I had to open my eyes to really see I’d hit it,” Leach quipped.

Leach was among a number of foreign players on various teams who fled the country after 3/11. He was the first player ever to be placed on the restricted list when he didn’t return to the county in a timely fashion.

He needed reinstatement from the league to return to play and lost to Carlos Torres on July 28. The first-year Giants import took the loss this time, falling to 1-2.

DRAGONS 1, TIGERS 0

Southpaw Enyelbert Soto (4-0) worked seven scoreless innings and two relievers finished off a six-hitter as Chunichi shut out Hanshin for the second straight night.

Soto became the first foreign hurler in club history to win his first four decisions, thanks to Masahiko Morino’s first-inning RBI, as Chunichi notched back-to-back 1-0 wins for the first time since May 7-8, 1987.

It was the 15 shutout loss for Hanshin, which won the series opener 1-0.

CARP 4, SWALLOWS 3

Kenta Kurihara had two RBIs, including a game-tying single in the eighth, and Yoshihiro Maru homered and followed Kurihara by driving in the tiebreaking run with a double as Hiroshima came back to top front-running Yakult at The Zoom.

Dennis Sarfate [friend of JBD] closed it out with a perfect ninth.

The Swallows didn’t lose any ground in the CL title chase, holding onto to their five-game lead over Hanshin.

PACIFIC LEAGUE

HAWKS 6, MARINES 1

Nobuhiro Matsuda’s RBI single capped a four-run fourth as SoftBank beat up on Lotte at FYJ Dome.

Nobuhiko Matsunaka had three hits and two RBIs and Munenori Kawasaki had three hits and an RBI to back Shota Oba (4-0).

LIONS 9, FIGHTERS 4

Jose Fernandez had three hits, including an RBI single, and Hideto Asamura drove in four with a pair of RBI singles as Seibu ripped Nippon Ham at Seibu Dome.

Takumi Kuriyama’s two-run double capped a five-run Seibu sixth.

BUFFALOES 5, EAGLES 1

Tomotaka Sakaguchi had three hits, including his second homer of the season, and third-year righty Yuki Nishi (6-5) tossed his first complete game as Orix sent visiting Rakuten to its seventh straight loss.

Nishi scattered three hits with no walks and nine Ks, and Mitsutaka Goto and Hikaru Ito also homered for the Buffaloes.

Takeshi Yamasaki cracked his 399th career homer for the only Rakuten run.