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Some rights reserved.
Soto helps Dragons halt 6-game skid
Chunichi Dragons skipper Hiromitsu Ochiai is the master of surprise, and he did it to the Yomiuri Giants again on Monday, giving first-year import Enyelbert Soto his first start.
The result, the Dragons tripped up the somewhat surprised Giants 7-1 behind Soto [the same pronunciation for the word “outside” in Japanese], and seven players had an RBI each in a win at Tokyo Dome that halted a six-game slide.
Soto (1-0) allowed four hits, including a first-inning home run by Yoshinobu Takahashi, while walking none and fanning two in a five-inning stint that seemed to give the Central League’s second-place Dragons a much-needed lift.
“The guys we can’t use get sent to the farm, the guys who can play we have to use,” Ochiai said, explaining why he went with Soto, whose ERA is 1.04 in 17.1 innings.
Soto knocked in the go-ahead run in the second, grounding out with the bases loaded after Giants starter Seth Greisinger (1-5) allowed two singles and a pair of walks for a run in the second.
The Dragons put up a three-spot in the fourth, Masaaki Koike, Tatsuro Iwasaki and Ryosuke Hirata each knocking in a run. Four Chunichi relievers didn’t allow in a combined four innings.
SWALLOWS 2, BAYSTARS 2
Ryoji Aikawa’s RBI single in the top of the ninth pulled Yakult even with host Yokohama, and the BayStars failed to score in bottom of the ninth before the time limit ended the game in a draw.
The front-running Swallows’ nine ties are the most for the club since 1985.
TIGERS 5, CARP 0
Jason Standridge (7-2) scattered eight hits and two hit batters, and Craig Brazell had two hits and three RBIs to lead Hanshin past Hiroshima at The Zoom.
PACIFIC LEAGUE
HAWKS 5, LIONS 3
Fourth-year righty Sho Iwasaki (3-5) worked six strong innings and Nobuhiro Matsuda slugged his team-best 15th homer as host SoftBank scored just enough to get past Seibu at FYJ Dome.
Iwasaki allowed a run on six hits, a walk and a hit batter on a career-high 100 pitches to win his third straight decision.
BUFFALOES 3, MARINES 2
Aarom Baldiris stroked his sixth homer, a solo blast in the eighth that broke a 2-2 tie, and Yoshihisa Hirano (2-0) worked a scoreless eighth for his second win as Orix topped Lotte at Kyocera Dome Osaka.