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Some rights reserved.
TOKOROZAWA, Saitama -- Losers of 10 straight and holders of the Central League’s longest scoring drought (recently snapped at 50 innings), the Hiroshima Carp looked dead in the water coming into the Thursday’s night’s matchup against Seibu Lions ace Hideaki Wakui.
But Yoshiyuki Ishihara knocked in two early runs and fourth-year pro Ryuhei Matsuyama belted his first career homer -- the team’s first in 12 games -- to back Bryan Bullington in a 5-1 victory at Seibu Dome.
The Carp, who have been blanked seven times in interleague play, put together an 11-hit game, touching up Wakui (4-3) for five runs on seven hits and two walks over his five-plus innings.
Bullington (5-2) kept the Lions, who have dropped four straight, scattered five hits and two walks with four Ks over seven innings for his first win since May 5.
“I was able to put up some numbers on the farm, and I came up here and wanted to do all I could to contribute up here, so I’m really very happy I was able to do that,” an emotional Matsuyama said during the hero interview after his longball knocked Wakui from the game.
“He's a pretty big name, but I concentrated on doing everything the same as usual -- doing what I’ve been doing on the farm -- and that’s why I was able to have success,” said Matsuyama, who said “sorry,” after admitting he nervous in his first pro on-field interview.
HAWKS 2, GIANTS 0
D.J. Houlton (7-2) fired eight scoreless innings and Alex Cabrera doubled in the only run the righty would need to beat Yomiuri at FYJ Dome.
Seiichi Uchikawa, who moved to SoftBank from Yokohama as a free agent in the offseason, recorded his 1,000th career hit with a six-inning single and drove in an insurance run in the eighth with a sac fly.
The Hawks reduced their magic number to win interleague play to three.
FIGHTERS 3, DRAGONS 2
Sho Nakata capped a three-run, eighth-inning rally with a shallow sac fly that Yang Zhong-sho gambled on and scored as Nippon Ham rallied to nip Chunichi at Sapporo Dome.
Kazuki Yoshimi (4-2) cruised into the eighth, but loaded the bases with one out before departing, and set-up man Takuya Asao allowed all three inherited runners to score.
TIGERS 5, MARINES 1
Akihiko Fujii, starting in place of the struggling Kenji Jojima, had two hits and a pair of RBIs, and Matt Murton went 2-for-5 with an RBI as Hanshin rapped out 13 hits to top Orix at The Q.
Hanshin's Tomoaki Kanemoto socked his career 418th homer, tying former Giants great Shigeo Nagashima for sixth on the all-time list.
Not even Yoshihisa Naruse (4-3) could stop the Marines from dropping their fourth straight.
EAGLES 2, BAYSTARS 2
Brett Harper clubbed a two-run, game-tying homer in the ninth off Ryan Speier to get the BayStars even, and Yokohama and Rakuten played to a 10-inning, 210-minute-rule tie at The Kleenex Box.
SWALLOWS 1, BUFFALOES 1
Yakult’s Kazuhiro Hatakeyama’s solo blast, his 10th, tied the score in fourth and the Swallows and Orix played to a 10-inning tie, stopped after 9:30 p.m. at Kyocera Dome.