Hitting home …

Tigers break out of slump, hold off Lions

During a four-game skid that included three shutout losses, it looked like every team knew how to catch the Hanshin Tigers by the toe.

But Kieichi Hirano had three hits and capped a four-run fourth inning with an RBI single, and added some insurance with an RBI single in the eighth inning as Hanshin came back to top the Seibu Lions 5-3 in interleague action on Tuesday at Koshien Stadium.

The Tigers had scored just two runs in their past four games -- going 38 innings without a run at one stretch – but Hirano tormented the Lions to up his average to .336

Cleanup man Takahiro Arai got the big inning started with his fifth longball, and Craig Brazell drove in a run with a double. Even starter Tsuyoshi Shimoyanagi, who got yanked after four innings, knocked in a run with a sac fly to put the Tigers up 3-2.

“We finally scored some runs,” said Hanshin skipper Akinobu Mayumi. “Our No. 4 hitter got a homer and that sparked it for us. We’ve been having trouble scoring so we didn’t want to just get even, we wanted to take the lead,” Mayumi said about the fourth.

Hirano said he was just focused.

“I went up there thinking, ‘I’m going to get a hit,’” Hirano said about his first RBI single. Of his second run-scoring hit, he said: “I just got that hit on will alone,”

Rookie Daiki Enokida (1-0) worked two scoreless innings to earn his first pro victory. The team’s No. 1 pick last year said he wasn’t aware he was up for the win while waiting out the final two innings.

“Someone sitting behind me on the bench said I was the pitcher of record sometime in the ninth inning,” said Enokida, a 24-year-old who came out of the corporate leagues.

“I’ve really been able to relax and pitch well in pressure situations, and I’m glad I won tonight.”

CARP 4, LOTTE 3

Yoshihiro Maru’s two-out, two-run double in the eighth lifted Hiroshima past reigning Japan Series champion Lotte, despite being outhit 9-5 at The Zoom.

The Marines, who led 3-0, are winless in interleague play with five losses and a tie.

Dennis Sarfate struck out the side for his Central League-leading 11th save.

Lotte starter Bill Murphy picked up his first interleague hit, but injured his right leg while running the bases in the second inning and left the game.

FIGHTERS 7, BAYSTARS 3

Shota Ono had two singles, one that scored a run, and an RBI triple in the fifth, part of 15 hits that carried Nippon Ham past Yokohama.

Yang Zhong-sho also had three hits and Hisashi Takeda notched his Japan-best 12th save.