Hot breath …

Dragons burn Swallows with sayonara in 9th

The Central League’s first-place Yakut Swallows don't just feel the hot breath on the backs of their necks, they can feel the flames.

Motonobu Tanishige’s walk-off single ended a dramatic comeback as the Chunichi Dragons pulled to within 1.5 games of the faltering Swallows with a 3-2 win on Saturday at Nagoya Dome.

Kazuhiro Hatakeyama’s two run homer in the first inning [the 45,000th longball in CL history] gave the Swallows the lead, but that was all they could muster off Enyelbert Soto (5-1), who kept them scoreless the rest the way until he departed after seven innings and got no decision. Two relievers retired the side in order in the eighth and ninth.

The Dragons scrambled up a run in the second on Yohei Oshima dropped an RBI looper into right to cut Yakult’s lead in half. Ryosuke Hirata cracked his eighth homer in the seventh, a solo shot to get the Dragons even one inning after Masahiko Morino was picked off second with two on and two out and Hirata at the plate.

Masahiro Araki led off the ninth with a single and a sacrifice and intentional walk later, Tony Blanco’s drive to center almost ended it. But Norichika Aoki ran it down and the runners were stuck at first and second. Tanishige sent a fluttering single to left in front of Yasushi Iihara, whose throw home dribbled to catcher Ryoji Aikawa too late for him tag Araki.

The Dragons have the most wins in the CL with 62, but the Swallows have 15 ties that leave them with a difference of five in the loss column.

TIGERS 9, TIGERS 4

Kohei Shibata capped a five-run second inning with a clutch three-run triple, and Craig Brazell had three hits and three RBIs as fourth-place Hanshin moved a game behind Yomiuri by dumping the third-place Giants at Koshien Stadium.

Giants starter Shun Tono (7-11) lasted just two innings, allowing five runs.

CARP 2, BAYSTARS 1

Brian Barden’s bases-loaded walk pushed home the go-ahead run in the top of the ninth and Dennis Sarfate [friend of JBW] shut it down in the bottom of the inning for his 35th save as Hiroshima won at Yokohama.

PACIIFIC LEAGUE

EAGLES 8, HAWKS 0

Fifth-year ace Tanaka (16-5) won his career-best 16th game in style, firing a shutout, and Kensuke Uchimura raced around for the second inside-the-park homer in club history, to beat front-running SoftBank at the Kleenex Box.

Kazuo Matsui had three hits and a pair of RBIs to back Tanaka, scattered eight hits and a walk and fanned seven to surpass the 200-inning mark for the first time in his career. He matched Yu Darvish for the lead in wins and lowered his Japan-best ERA to 1.35.

The Hawks saw their magic number to win the PL title drop to nine with Nippon Ham’s loss.

BUFFALOES 5, FIGHTERS 0

Chihiro Kaneko (9-3) twirled his 12th career shutout and extended his consecutive scoreless innings streak to 30 with a two-hitter to beat floundering Nippon Ham at Sapporo Dome.

Mitsutaka Goto had four hits and Shogo Akada broke the game open with a two-run triple in a four-run eighth that sent the Fighters to their sixth straight loss.

LIONS 5, MARINES 5

Hideto Asamura’s sac fly in the ninth got Seibu even and it held Lotte scoreless in the ninth for a time-limit tie at The Q.

Yasuhiko Yabuta blew the save in the ninth, allowing two runs on two hits and two walks.