Cleaning up ...

Ramirez breaks club record for consecutive games as cleanup man

Alex Ramirez calls the Yomiuri Giants cleanup spot an honor. And he has paid the ultimate respect to the position by showing up every day and being a productive slugger for Japan’s marquee team.

Ramirez batted fourth for the Giants for the 416th consecutive game, hitting a solo homer and driving in another run as the Giants took a huge lead and held off the host Yokohama BayStars 7-2 on Sunday.

The Venezuelan, who began his career in 2001 with the Yakult Swallows and came to Yomiuri after the ’07 season, has played every game since joining the Giants. At 38, he came up with a career year last season, belting 49 homers and knocking in 129 runs -- both his bests in Japan.

His eighth-inning solo shot – his fifth -- knocked the BayStars back after they had battled to within a run after the Giants scored five runs in the first inning.

Raimrez's streak is now the second all-time in Japan Pro Baseball.

Shuichi Murata homered twice, a pair of solo shots to give him three, but the BayStars crashed to their fifth loss in six games.

DRAGONS 5, CARP 4

Tony Blanco drove in the tiebreaking run with an RBI double, and Kei Nomoto tripled and homered to drive in two as Chunichi rallied to top Hiroshima at Nagoya Dome.

Motonobu Tanishige had a sac fly in the seventh inning and his bases-loaded walk in the eighth proved to be the difference as Hitoki Iwase struggled to his fourth save.

SWALLOWS 6, TIGERS 2

Wladimir Balentien smacked a pair of homers, his sixth and seventh, and drove in three as Yakult slugged its way past Hanshin to avoid a three-game sweep at Koshien Stadium.

PACIFIC LEAGUE

HAWKS 8, MARINES 3

Alex Cabrera doubled and homered and had three RBIs, and Nobuhiro Matsuda belted a three-run home run as SoftBank denied Lotte a sweep at The Q.

Masahiko Morifuku became the 23rd pitcher to record a save with one pitch when he snuffed out a bases-loaded threat in the ninth inning. It’s the 28th time in NPB history and the first time in the PL since Fumiya Nishiguchi of Seibu did it on April 23, 1996.

BUFFALOES 10, EAGLES 3

Koji Yamasaki had two hits and three RBIs and Hirotoshi Kitagawa had two hits and drove in a pair of runs as Orix handed Rakuten its first loss in three games at the Kleenex Box.

Righty Yuki Nishi (3-0) was sharp over 6.1 innings for the win. The third-year pro has no losses in 24 career outings.

LIONS 3, FIGHTERS 3

Jose Fernandez had a sixth-inning RBI single and Ryo Sakata following by driving in the game-tying run with a scoring fly ball, and neither team could break the deadlock before the 210-minute rule kicked in after 10 innings at Sapporo Dome.