Taking flight …
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Some rights reserved.
Tsuyoshi Masubuchi was a highly hyped rookie in 2007. He hasn’t been talked about much since.
But the righty is starting to take flight -- at least he’s getting some air -- this season, and he proved it to the visiting Hanshin Tigers, firing 6.2 scoreless innings to help the Yakult Swallows to a 3-0 win in Akita.
Masubuchi (5-4) fanned a career-high nine -- allowing five hits with four walks -- to collect his fifth win, his highest total in any of his four-plus seasons.
“I was finally able to throw like I wanted to today,” said Masubuchi, the Swallows’ first-round pick in 2006 who was going against Hanshin ace Atsushi Nomi (4-7).
“I didn't worry about that, I just focused on doing on the mound what I had to do and I went all out. I was determined not to give up any runs and went hard from the start.”
Norichika Aoki, who went 2-for-4, broke a scoreless tie with an RBI single in the sixth. Hiroyasu Tanaka added a two-run single in the seventh and the front-running Swallows moved to four games over the Chunichi Dragons in the Central League.
GIANTS 3, CARP 0
Kentaro Nishimura (1-0) tossed seven shutout innings and Alex Ramirez and two others drove in runs as Yomiuri cruised past Hiroshima at Tokyo Dome.
Yoshinobu Takahashi went 3-for-3, the final hit a single that gave him 1,500 career hits.
BAYSTARS 3, DRAGONS 1
Naoto Inada’s two-run bases-loaded single in the seventh gave the Yokohama a win over Chunichi at Nagoya Dome.
The BayStars avoided a sweep as Daisuke Miura (1-1) tossed six innings of one-run ball for his first win this season (first since last May 21), setting a franchise record with at least one win over 19 consecutive years (since 1993).
PACIFIC LEAGUE
LIONS 9, BUFFALOES 3
Hiroyuki Nakamura had four hits and three RBIs, and Takeya “Okawari-kun” Nakamura homered again -- his Japan-best 24th -- as Seibu dumped visiting Orix.
Jose Fernandez was 2-for-4 with a double and two RBIs.
FIGHTERS 3, EAGLES 2
Eiichi Koyano smacked a bases-loaded walk-off single in the ninth inning as Nippon Ham edged Rakuten at Asahikawa in Hokkaido.
HAWKS 4, MARINES 0
Tadashi Settsu (8-4) blanked Lotte on two hits and one walk over eight innings as front-running SoftBank shut out Lotte at FYJ Dome.
[Edited by: jgibson on Jul 11, 2011 2:53 PM]