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Yokohama ends skid with rain-shortened win
Players are usually opposed to the rain, but with a seven-run lead, the Yokohama DeNA BayStars were singing in it on Wednesday night.
Masaaki Koike homered to cap the scoring, and Shogo Yamamoto (1-1) scattered seven hits over five scoreless innings before umpires called the game at Jingu Stadium after the top of the sixth for a 7-0 Yokohama shutout of the Yakult Swallows.
The victory, just the second for the BayStars, snapped a six-game skid. The loss halted Yakult’s three-game winning streak.
Swallows starter Masanori Ishikawa (1-1) got knocked around for seven hits, while giving up a walk and hitting a batter, and got the hook without recording an out in the third inning.
Norihiro Nakamura drove in a pair with a first-inning double, and Alex Ramirez had a two-run two-bagger in Yokohama’s five-run third.
TIGERS 4, CARP 1
Takahiro Arai blasted a pair of two-run homers to provide all the offense, and Yasutomo Kubo (1-0) carried a shutout into eighth to lead Hanshin past Hiroshima at The Zoom.
The Tigers had just four hits in the game, but it was enough to help get Kyuji Fujikawa to the mound in the ninth so he could collect his career 200th save. He struck out the side to become the fifth pitcher to reach that plateau.
Hanshin’s Craig Brazell got run when he went off after an inside pitch by Yuya Fukui (0-1) a night after Tigers catcher Akihito Fujii got hit under his left eye [he has a broken bone in his face].
GIANTS 5, DRAGONS 1
Dicky Gonzalez (1-0) wobbled early but lasted six innings, holding Chunichi to a run on eight hits and three walks with three Ks, and Shuichi Murata slugged the team’s first homer of the season in the eighth inning -- of game 11 -- as the Giants won at Tokyo Dome.
Murata, a two-time CL homer kind and offseason pickup from Yokohama, padded a lead the Giants grabbed in the third inning on Shinnosuke Abe’s RBI single.
PACIFIC LEAGUE
FIGHTERS 14, HAWKS 0
A night after the Tigers became the first team to score in double figure this season, Nippon Ham piled up a NBP-season-high 14 runs on 18 hits, including a grand slam and a three-run shot for seven RBIs from Atsunori Inaba [his highest total since April 16, 1997 with Yakult] to stop host SoftBank’s five game winning streak.
Tomoya Yagi fired a career-best three-hitter -- with two walks and six punchouts -- for his first shutout since May 5, 2009.
Meanwhile, the Eagles and Lions were rained out at Koshien, while the Buffaloes and Marines were washed out in Chiba.