Unscheduled landing ...

Streaking Hawks finally hit the soil at Koshien

The streaking SoftBank Hawks were caught in a trap game. The Hanshin Tigers went into Friday’s action with just three interleague wins (tied with two other teams for second fewest) and were starting a pitcher who hadn’t won in a month.

So of course the Tigers knocked out one of the Pacific League’s winningest pitchers and stopped SoftBank’s franchise-best 12-game unbeaten streak in interleague, topping the Hawks 5-3 at Koshien Stadium.

Minoru Iwata (2-5) tossed seven strong innings and knocked in the go-ahead run with a bases-loaded single in the second inning of his first win at Koshien since October 2009.

After Daiki Enokida worked a scoreless eighth, Kyuji Fujikawa put a runner on before fanning Nobuhiko Matsunaka to end the game. But the hero was Iwata, a fifth-year southpaw, who hadn’t won since May 1 at Tokyo Dome.

“I felt on edge every day and I started to question myself. Things weren’t going right so I’m glad I was able to win tonight,” said Iwata, who helped the offense tag D.J. Houlton (6-2) for five runs, four earned, on eight hits
and two walks in five innings.

Iwata said he wanted to challenge the Hawks.

“If you don’t pitch aggressively, they’re going to be all over you -- I just didn’t want to lose the mental battle,” he said after tossing seven innings, allowing three runs on five hits with seven Ks.

FIGHTERS 9, SWALLOWS 0

Bobby Keppel (5-1) fired seven scoreless inning, scattering four hits, and two relievers capped Nippon Ham’s fifth consecutive shutout and extended its PL record for consecutive scoreless innings to 50 -- tying the all-time record -- as the Fighters ravaged Yakult at Jingu Stadium.

The shutout streak matches the Chunichi Dragons, who had 50 scoreless innings last year, for the longest shutout streak by a pitching staff since the 1942 Tigers worked 52 straight without allowing a run.

Yoshio Itoi cracked his fifth and sixth homers and drove in two runs for the Fighters, whose Kensuke Tanaka roped his first homer of the season to open the scoring in the third.

BUFFALOES 6, CARP 2

Shinya Nakayama (1-4) blanked struggling Hiroshima for six innings and Tomotaka Sakaguchi had four hits and an RBI as Orix downed the Carp at The Zoom.

The Carp, who have lost seven straight, scored twice in the seventh after being shut out for a CL-record 50- consecutive innings. The Swallows had the previous record for futility at 49 innings.

BAYSTARS 3, MARINES 1

Shigeru Kaga (2-1) held Lotte to one run on seven hits and a walk with five Ks over eight innings, and Naoto Watanabe’s eighth-inning RBI double to broke a 1-1 tie as host Yokohama stopped a four-game skid.

Kaga outpitched Lotte ace Yoshihisa Naruse (4-3), who went eight innings, allowing three runs, two earned, on seven hits with no walks and seven punchouts to send the Marines to their fourth straight loss.

LIONS 2, DRAGONS 1

Hiroshi Hirao’s sac fly in the 11th scored Takeya Nakamura, who had three doubles, as Seibu edged Chunichi at Nagoya Dome.

The Lions pulled to within a game of the Hawks in the interleague standings.

GIANTS 4, EAGLES 2

Alex Ramirez broke a 1-1 tie with his career 38th interleague homer -- third on the all-time list -- and Shun Tono (2-5) went six innings to earn his first win since Opening Day as Yomiuri topped Rakuten at Tokyo Dome.