Digging the longball …
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Some rights reserved.
“Chicks dig the longball” has for years been a popular phrase in the states. But all home fans dig the longball, especially when the home team comes through with them when the game is on the line.
Yoshinobu Takahashi connected for a game-tying solo blast in the eighth, and Shigeyuki Furuki cracked his first career walk-off shot in the ninth to power the Yomiuri Giants past the Hanshin Tigers 3-2 at Tokyo Dome on Wednesday night.
Furuki, a defensive replacement for the Central League’s fifth-place Giants, was looking much like the goat after a baserunning mistake in the seventh on which he was thrown out at the plate. Furuki took Hanshin closer Kyuji Fujikawa (3-1) out for a dramatic opposite-field homer.
“I’m relieved. I use the tough situations as a springboard for myself. I put expectations on myself,” said the 14-year veteran. “In Sapporo, they have ‘Yu-chan fever,’” he said about popular rookie hurler Yuki Saito. “I thought about getting ‘Shige-chan fever’ going here.”
Giants skipper Tatsunori Hara was all smiles about touching up Fujikawa for the win and avoiding dropping the first two games of the series.
“We’ve been able get ahead of him in the count, but we haven’t able to get to him,” Hara said. “Furuki did a great job for us, though.”
Yuya Kubo (3-1) picked up the win with a scoreless ninth.
CARP 7, BAYSTARS 2
Kenta Kurihara had his first multi-homer game since last Sept. 21, and drove in five runs as Hiroshima topped Yokohama for its fourth straight win and club-bes-tying 10th straight victory at Yokohama Stadium.
Bryan Bullington (10-4) surrendered 10 hits and walked two, but fanned a half-dozen to pick up his CL-best 10th win.
SWALLOWS 1, DRAGONS 1
Yakult rookie starter Yuki Shichijo’s first pro single drove in the game-tying run against Chunichi in the second inning, and neither team could score in a 10-inning draw at Nagoya Dome.
PACIFIC LEAGUE
HAWKS 4, BUFFALOES 3
Nobuhiro Matsuda’s RBI double broke a 3-3 tie and completed a rally from three runs down as front-running SoftBank edged Orix at Kyocera Dome.
Tsuyoshi Wada (9-3) allowed three runs in the first, but blanked the Buffaloes until departing in the seventh to earn his 100th career win as the Hawks extended their PL lead to 4.5 games.
MARINES 5, FIGHTERS 2
Jose Castillo followed Tadahito Iguchi’s RBI single with a two-run go-ahead single in a four-run seventh as Lotte rallied to top Nippon Ham at Sapporo Dome.
Castillo, who acquired on June 27, has hit in 18 straight. He went 2-for-4 with two RBIs to help send Nippon Ham to its longest skid since last June.
LIONS 5, EAGLES 2
Takeya Nakamura’s two-run single in the sixth proved to be the difference, and Kazuyuki Hoashi (6-5) tossed 6.1 effective innings as Seibu topped Rakuten at the Kleenex Box.
Hoashi improved to 11-1 vs. the Eagles.
[Edited by: jgibson on Aug 4, 2011 10:47 PM]