Tough guys …

Lions overcome issues, end 9-game skid

Kazuhisa Ishii got knocked out the game by a comebacker, but the Seibu Lions wouldn’t let that keep them down.

Hiroyuki Nakajima slugged a tiebreaking two-run homer in the eighth and three relievers tossed 4.1 scoreless innings as the Pacific League's last-place Lions opened the second half of the season with a 4-2 victory Monday over the visiting Lotte Marines.

The victory put a halt to a nasty nine-game winning streak, during which the Lions were swept in three straight series for the first time in franchise history.

“I haven’t been coming through a lot of the times we’ve had scoring chances, and [Hideto] Asamura had the failed bunt attempt, so I wanted to help cover up for that and set up the guys behind me,” said Nakajima, who hadn’t homered in his previous 19 games.

Nakajima, who was making his first appearance as team captain, drove in the game’s first run with a first-inning sac fly to support Ishii.

But Ishii didn’t last long, and he certainly wasn’t around to see Nakajima’s 11th blast. The 37-year-old lefty was struck by a line drive off the bat of Keisuke Hayasaka in the top of the third inning.

Ishii got through the frame after treatment on the leg, but everything fell apart in the fifth when he walked the bases loaded with one out. He got one out, but served up a two-out, two-run single to Shota Ishimine before departing.

Seibu’s ’Yuta Kimura bailed Ishii out of the jam and fired two more scoreless innings and Hsu Ming-chie (4-1) fired a scoreless frame to pick up the win and rookie submariner Kazuhisa Makita notched his fourth save with a 1-2-3 ninth.

Ishii, who took a shot off the noggin while with the Los Angeles Dodgers when the Houston Astros’ Brian Hunter hit a comebacker off his forehead.

Even as Ishii was walking off the field Monday to get treatment mid-inning, he stopped more than once to apply pressure to his leg with his hands. But the 37-year-old came back to work a scoreless fourth. He couldn’t escape the fifth, one out away from a possible victory.

Takumi Kuriyama was 3-for-4 with an RBI for Seibu.