Reasons to celebrate …

A birthday, a milestone and a victory have Carp smiling

Tomonori Maeda knocked in a run on his birthday, Yoshiyuki Ishihara had a hit that led to a run in his 1,000th game, and Kenta Maeda got a gift, of sorts, as the bullpen preserved his win on Thursday at The Q.

Kenta Maeda (6-3) worked eight innings, allowing a run on four hits and two walks, while fanning seven in a 6-3 win over the Lotte Marines.

The win helped out fellow Central League foe Yomiuri by reducing its magic number to win the interleague title to one. The Giants need a win in either of their last two games or a Lotte loss to become the first CL team to win interleague play, which began in 2005.

Soichiro Amaya had three doubles and two RBIs, and Masato Akamatsu had two hits and a pair of RBIs to back the right-hander. Kam Mickolio got the final two outs for his fourth save.

Rookie lefty Takahiro Fujioka (4-3) lost for the second time in three starts, lasting just three inning after getting touched up for three runs on four hits and two walks.

Maeda celebrated his 41st birthday with a sac fly to center in the fifth, and Ishikawa singled in the sixth and scored on Amaya’s double to the gap in left center to give the Carp a 6-1 lead.

FIGHTERS 5, GIANTS 1

Mitsuo Yoshikawa (7-2) held Yomiuri to a run over seven innings, and Shinya Tsuruoka had two RBIs to help Nippon Ham top the Giants, keeping them from celebrating the interleague title at Sapporo Dome.

Tsuruoka’s RBI single tied the score and Eiichi Koyano walked with the bases loaded in a two-run fifth that gave Yoshikawa all he would need to move into a tie [with Lotte’s Yoshihisa Naruse] atop the PL in wins.

SWALLOWS 3, EAGLES 1

Lefty Katsuki Akagawa (4-4) allowed just one run over 7.2 innings, and reserve Ryosuke Morioka had an RBI single and a scoring flyball as Yakult won its second straight over Rakuten at The Kleenex Box.

Akagawa, who set down the side from the fourth to the seventh innings, got into trouble in the eighth -- when Lim Chang Yang bailed him out of a jam -- for his first win since May 10. Tony Barnette shut things down in the ninth for his 15th save.

HAWKS 8, DRAGONS 0

Kenji Otonari (5-3) fired his first complete-game shutout of the season, and Nobuhiro Matsuda had a pair of doubles for three RBIs as SoftBank swept its pair of home games with Chunichi.

The Hawks beat up Yudai Kawai (2-2) for six runs, two earned, by the second inning and never looked back.

BUFFALOES 5, BAYSTARS 4

Lee Dae Ho cracked a first-inning three-run homer in the first and Mitsutaka Goto’s second hit, an RBI double in the sixth, was the difference as Orix topped Yokohama at Kyocera Dome Osaka.

Second-year righty Shohei Tsukahara (1-0) [who turns 20 next month] got his first pro win, holding Yokohama to two runs over 5.1 innings.

TIGERS 4, LIONS 3

Part-timer Ryota Arai got a rare start and came up with a pair of RBI singles, and pinch-hitter Yamato Maeda put Hanshin in the lead by driving in the go-ahead run in the ninth as the visiting Tigers battled back from an early 3-0 deficit to edge Seibu.

*Interleague count
PL 61, CL 58, 10 TIES