Rare bird ...

Kokubo finally gets to 2,000 hits, but Hawks blanked

One Hawk finally got off the ground. The rest of the Hawks were stuck in the mud.

Hiroki Kokubo returned from a hernia to finally reach the 2,000-hit mark, singling in the fourth inning of a 6-0 shutout loss to the Nippon Ham Fighters at FYJ Dome.

Kokubo, whose last hit came on May 22 against the Hiroshima Carp, is the 41st hitter to join the Golden Players Club with that many hits.

Brian Wolfe (5-4) gave up the single but wasn’t so worried about being part of Kokubo’s milestone as much as he was concerned about keeping the Hawks off the scoreboard.

“He got his 2,000th hit, but I was able to keep him in check -- I didn't give up the big hit at that time,” said Wolfe, who got two perfect innings from the bullpen after allowing four hits and two walks.

Kokubo is the third player this season to get 2,000 hits. The Fighters’ Atsunori Inaba and former Yakult Swallows teammate Shinya Miyamoto got into the Golden Players Club -- for position players with 2,000 or more hits and pitchers who amass at least either 200 wins or 250 saves.

Kokubo reached the mark in game No. 1,997, and is the 14th player to have 400 homers among his total. He’s also the sixth Hawks player to record that many hits, the first since current skipper Koji Akiyama reached the milestone in 2000.

LIONS 4, BUFFALOES 3

Yutaro Osaki’s bases-clearing double in the eighth put Seibu in the lead, and rookie Ken Togame (1-0) earned his first win with two scoreless innings as the Lions rallied back to beat Orix at Seibu Dome.

EAGLES 4, MARINES 4

Shunichi Nemoto’s errant throw allowed the tying run to score in the ninth inning, and that’s the way it stayed as Lotte and Rakuten played to a stalemate at The Kleenex Box.

CENTRAL LEAGUE

DRAGONS 5, CARP 4

Kazuhiro Wada saved Chunichi from embarrassment, doubling home the eventual game-winning run in the fifth after the host Dragons had blown a 4-0 lead.

Jorge Sosa (2-0) got the win by extracting Soma Yamauchi from a four-run fourth after Tony Blanco had homered [his 15th] and doubled in runs in building a 4-0 cushion.

TIGERS 5, BAYSTARS 2

Keiichi Hirano led three players with at least two hits, slugging his first career homer at Koshein Stadium, and Matt Murton added a solo blast as Hanshin downed Yokohama.

Yuya Ando (3-4) went 8.1 innings for the win, preserved when Daiki Enokida [Sunday's stand-in for Kyuji Fujikawa] fanned two of three to earn his second career save.

SWALLOWS 3, GIANTS 3, 11 INNINGS

Hayato Sakamoto’s RBI single in the 10th was the last score as Yomiuri canceled out a go-ahead solo blast by Lastings Milledge in the top of the frame and settled for a tie at The Big Egg.