Straight from the heart …

Baldiris blast Buffaloes past Eagles

Aarom Baldiris started the day with news that his grandmother has passed away. He ended Tuesday’s Pacific League third-place showdown with a no-doubt-about-it, walk-off solo shot in the 10th inning as the Orix Buffaloes blanked the Rakuten Eagles 1-0 in Kobe.

Baldiris’ shot was Orix's sixth straight win over the Eagles and moved the Buffaloes into sole possession of third in the race for the final PL playoff spot. The 3.5-hour time limit wouldn’t have prevented another inning, but the Venezuelan put an end to the game with his 13th longball of the season.

“I tried to swing hard for a home and I was looking for a good pitch [to hit], and he threw me a good pitch. Home run,” Baldiris said in the hero interview. “I knew the ball was going [out]. So I want to dedicate this to my grandmother, who died today,” said Baldiris while wiping away tears.

The shot made a winner out of Yoshihisa Hirano (4-0), who fired a scoreless 10th after starter Chihiro Kaneko worked nine shutout innings.

Rakuten ace Hisashi Iwakuma went seven scoreless innings, holding the Buffaloes to two hits before turning things over to the pen.

Orix, 55-56, snapped a three-game skid and won the first of a mid-week set against the Eagles, who are 55-58.

HAWKS 7, LIONS 2

Kazuki Yamazaki had two hits and two RBIs, and Hiroki Kokubo doubled and homered [his 12th consecutive year with double digits in longballs] to lead SoftBank past visiting Seibu.

Seibu starter Kazuhisa Ishii (6-8) became the 85th pitcher in NPB history to reach 2,000 innings pitched.

FIGHTERS 4, MARINES 0

Brian Wolfe (12-7) held Lotte scoreless over six innings and Atsunori Inaba cracked a pair of solo homers, his first multi-homer game since June 15 of last year, as host Nippon Ham posted its 20th shutout by beating the Marines at Tokyo Dome.

Wolfe scattered six hits and a walk, and fanned three.

CENTRAL LEAGUE

SWALLOWS 4, CARP 1

Cleanup man Kazuhiro Hatakeyama celebrated his birthday by ripping a tiebreaking two-run homer in the sixth inning, and third-year pro Katsuki Akagawa (3-2) worked six one-run innings as front-running Yakult won at Hiroshima.

It was the seventh straight win for the Swallows, who moved a season-best 15 games over .500.

DRAGONS 6, TIGERS 4

Hirokazu Ibata hit his first homer since Aug. 15, 2009, and Tony Blanco also went deep as Chunichi topped Hanshin at Kosehien to win its fifth straight, its longest this season.

Super set-up man Takuya Asao worked two scoreless innings and Hitoki Iwase put two on before closing out his 28th save.

BAYSTARS 2, GIANTS 1

Yokohama loaded the bases with no outs in the ninth and Kazuya Fujita’s grounder to short forced a bad throw from Hayato Sakamoto as the BayStars edged Yomiuri with a walk-off win.

Second-year hurler Yuki Kuniyoshi didn’t get a decision, but set the table with 5.2 innings of one-run ball.