Dropping the ’Hama …

Hawks come from behind to top Yokohama

Everything seemed to be heading in Yokohama’s direction until starter Kentaro Takasaki couldn’t get out of the seventh inning.

The ’Stars faded from there, falling to the Hawks 6-5 at FYJ Dome as SoftBank stayed unbeaten in nine interleague games.

Pinch-hitter Nobuhiko Matsunaka singled with the bases loaded in the eighth inning to even the score, and Hidenori Tanoue followed with a pinch-hit, go-ahead RBI single (his first hit of the season) as the Pacific League-leading Hawks came back from an early 4-0 deficit to top the Central League’s fifth-place team.

Matsunaka, a 37-year-old veteran who has been reduced by injuries to mostly pinch-hitting duty this season, got the hit off former teammate Takayuki Shinohara in a lefty-on-lefty matchup.

“Well, I’d like to be playing as a regular, but the team is doing well,” said Matsunaka, who added that he’s learning a different facet of the game. “I don’t want to waste this opportunity -- I’m gaining more understanding of what it takes to be a pinch-hitter.

“But that’s why I work hard every day, to be able to come on in a situation like that and produce. I’m going to do my utmost and practice so that I can get hits in more situations like this and make the fans happy.”

The BayStars scored four runs in the first two innings off SoftBank southpaw Toshiya Sugiuchi but couldn’t hold the lead, falling to 3-4 in interleague play.

“We scored four runs off Sugiuchi. We have to be able to finish off a game like that,” said Yokohama skipper Takao Obana.

GIANTS 2, MARINES 0

Tetsuya Utsumi (6-1) fired a four-hitter to stop Yomiuri’s club-worst run of games to start a season without a complete game at 35 in a victory over Lotte at soggy Chiba Marine Field.

Hisayoshi Chono had a sac fly in the first, and Kenji Yano had a scoring flyball in the sixth to back Utsumi, who won his fourth straight decision by walking three and fanning 10 on a career-high 152 pitches. It was his first complete game since last June 18 and his seventh overall.

FIGHTERS 1, CARP 0

Atsunori Inaba drove in the game’s only run with a two-out single in the 11th inning as Nippon Ham blanked Hiroshima in a struggle at Sapporo Dome.

Dennis Sarfate (1-1) the sixth Carp pitcher, suffered the loss. He tossed a perfect 10th but Kensuke Tanaka opened the Fighters’ 11th with his third hit of the game and eventually scored the game-winning run.

DRAGONS 5, BUFFALOES 1

Hirokzau Ibata had a two-run single in the third and an RBI hit in the fifth, and Kazuki Yoshimi (4-1) worked seven inning of one-run ball as Chunichi topped Orix at Kyocera Dome Osaka.

Yoshimi scattered five hits and a hit batter with no walks and four Ks to top the Buffaloes, who won the interleague title last season but were 1-3 against the Dragons in 2010.

LIONS 3, SWALLOWS 2

Hiroyuki Nakajima slugged a game-tying two-run homer in the sixth, and Ginjiro Sumitani broke the 2-2 tie the next inning with a solo blast off Masanori Ishikawa (3-2) as Seibu rallied with power to pop visiting Yakult.

Takayuki Kishi (2-1) allowed two runs in the first inning, but settled down to hold Yakult scores until he departed after seven innings.

EAGLES 3, TIGERS 2

Fuminori Yokohgawa’s third hit of the game was a walk-off single in the ninth that pushed Rakuten past slumping Hanshin at The Kleenex Box.

The Eagles fought off the Tigers, who have dropped seven of eight and are in last place in the interleague standings, after the Tigers evened the score at 2-2 on Craig Brazell’s solo blast in the seventh.