Sinking silence …

Hawks come up empty after big night

It figures the day after setting an NPB season high in hits and runs scored that scoring would be tough for SoftBank. The Hawks just didn’t figure to be produce nothing with nine base runners on Sunday.

Shunsuke Watanabe worked eight scoreless innings
and Yoshifumi Okada picked up an RBI when Shota Ishimine scored all the way from second on a two-out infield single for the game’s only run in Lotte’s first series victory in nine matchups.

The Hawks sputtered in dropping the series. They were shut out in Friday’s opener but pounded Lotte for 18 runs on 22 hits on Saturday, and ended up outscoring the Marines 18-6 in the series.

“It’s scary when they hit that much,” Watanabe said about facing a team after a big night of production.

“I just did what [Friday starter Hiroki Ueno] did and just had faith in the pitches I was throwing out there,” said Watanabe (7-7), who worked his way around eight hits with 15 outs in the air -- a rare feat for the SubMarine.
Yasuhiko Yabuta worked a hitless ninth for his 28th save.

SoftBank starter Tadashi Settsu (11-8) went the distance but was the hard-luck loser.

EAGLES 2, FIGHTERS 1

Not even Yu Darvish could stop Nippon Ham’s latest funk, exiting after seven scoreless innings, and Rakuten’s Takeshi Yamasaki took advantage of his replacement with a two-out, two-run homer to erase a one-run deficit and lift the Eagles to a dramatic win at home.

Yamasaki took Hirotoshi Masui’s first-pitch fastball over the fence the opposite way in right for his 11th homer. Shinichiro Koyama (7-2) earned the win with two scoreless innings of relief, while Masui fell to 0-3.

LIONS 10, BUFFALOES 5

Rookie Shogo Akiyama had three hits and drove in five runs, and Takumi Kuriyama had three hits and three RBIs as Seibu swept Orix in Kobe and moved 3.5 games behind the Buffaloes and the Eagles for the third and final playoff spot.

CENTRAL LEAGUE

DRAGONS 1, BAYSTARS 0

Nothing better for a struggling team -- or player, for that matter -- than Yokohama. Maximo Nelson (7-13) halted his personal nine-decision losing streak with seven shutout innings, and Masahiro Araki had three hits -- including the 1,500th of his career -- as Chunichi completed a three-game sweep at Nagoya Dome.

Araki knocked in the only run with a fifth-inning single, one of eight Dragons hits.

It was Chunichi’s Japan-best ninth 1-0 win this
season, while the the BayStars scored three or fewer runs for the 17th straight game.

GIANTS 3, CARP 2

Yoshinobu Takahashi’s ninth-inning single off [friend of JBW] Dennis Sarfate (1-2) gave Yomiuri a comeback win over Hiroshima at The Big Egg.

The Giants scored run in each of the final three innings to win the rubber game of the series.

SWALLOWS 4, TIGERS 2

Kazuhiro Hatakeyama’s 17th longball of the season came minutes after Hanshin had tied the score and lifted host Yakult to a three-game sweep -- a six-game winning streak.

Shingo Kawabata walked with two outs and Hatakeyama blasted a fastball from Daiki Enokida (2-3) just over the wall in left center. Lim Chang Yang closed it out with a 1-2-3 ninth for his 24th save.