The mark of zero …

Fighters blank Giants, start new scoreless streak

The Nippon Ham Fighters are striking with the mark of zero.

Masaru Takeda (4-5) spun six scoreless innings and Sho Nakata had his first RBI hits since taking over the cleanup spot on May 25, doubling twice and driving in a pair as Nippon Ham resumed putting up zeros against the Central League in a 5-0 whitewashing of the Yomiuri Giants on Sunday at Tokyo Dome.

The Fighters nearly set an NPB record with their streaks of consecutive shutouts (five games) and scoreless innings (52), both of which were snapped on Saturday at Jingu Stadium. But they had little trouble with the Giants.

The Fighters, second in the Pacific League, used three relievers to notch their eighth shutout of interleague.

Atsunori Inaba ripped a solo blast in the second, and Nakata had RBI doubles in the sixth and eighth to back Takeda, who earlier this season dropped five straight decisions when the Fighters were blanked in each of those starts.

DRAGONS 1, MARINES 0

Ryosuke Hirata became the first CL player since 1988 -- and the first in club history -- to slug walk-off homers on back-to-back days, unloading on Lotte hurler Yasuhiko Yabuta (0-2) in the ninth inning for the game’s
only run at Nagoya Dome.

Hirata, who won Saturday’s game in the 11th, smacked a two-out shot the opposite way to become the first player since Doug DeCines had sayonara homers on consecutive days for the Yakult Swallows in 1988.

Hirata also made a running catch on a drive to right off the bat of Tomoya Satozaki to save a run in the top of the ninth inning as the Dragons swept all four matchups with the defending Japan Series champs.

HAWKS 1, CARP 0

Tadashi Settsu (5-2) fired a four-hitter for his first career complete game, sending host Hiroshima to its ninth consecutive loss.

Settsu walked one and hit a batter while fanning a career-high-tying eight, and Seiichi Uchikawa’s RBI groundout in the first was the only run.

SWALLOWS 13, EAGLES 5

Josh Whitesell had four hits, including his second homer in as many days, and drove in three and Wladimir Balentien hit his Japan-high 14th longball as Yakult pounded out 18 hits to batter Rakuten at Jingu Stadium.

The Eagles produced their highest hit total since Aug. 6, 2009 with 18, but only three went for extra bases (two doubles and a triple.)

BAYSTARS 5, LIONS 4

Brett Harper’s RBI single in the eighth pushed Yokohama past Seibu at Yokohama Stadium.

The BayStars scored three in the sixth to erase a 3-1 deficit, but Seibu got even in the top of the sixth on Takeya Nakamura’s PL-best 13th homer.

BUFFALOES 14, TIGERS 3

Takahiro “T.O.” Okada smacked a three-run homer and had two other hits to lead Orix’s 17-hit assault in a laugher over Hanshin at Koshien Stadium for their fifth straight victory.