Ready to pop …

Swallows’ slump hits five as CL closes in

Hiroshima starter Yuya Fukui was forced to leave the game after five innings when a blister on his pitching hand popped. The Yakult Swallows seem about ready to pop too, because they’re coming apart at the seams.

Fukui (7-6) held the Central League front-runners -- at least they are for a few more days, it seems -- to a run on two hits and two walks, and Shigenobu Shima broke loose for three hits, including his first homer, and two RBIs as Hiroshima sent the nose-diving Swallows to their fifth consecutive loss with a 10-2 beatdown at Koshien.

The Swallows, who finished August 7-14-3, look like a team that will struggle to hold onto to a playoff spot in the final month of the season. They couldn’t generate much offense against Fukui, whose seven wins lead all CL rookies. And they couldn’t keep the Carp from trampling all over home, especially in the final two innings when they scored seven runs to blow the game open.

Hiroshima, though, remains under .500 and 3.5 games back of Yakult. They’ve won the first two of this three-game series and have a chance to inch a game closer before heading home to play the Chunichi Dragons for a three-game weekend set.

Kenta Kurihara had two hits, including an RBI single for his 25th of the month.

DRAGONS 4, TIGERS 1

Chen Wei-yin (6-7) held Hanshin to one run on four hits and two walks over seven innings, and Ryosuke Hirata had three hits and an RBI as Chunichi won at Nagoya Dome.

Closer Hitoki Iwase gave up a hit but got a double play en route to notching another game to his all-time high save total of 299.

GIANTS 7, BAYSTARS 2

Hisayoshi Chono had three hits, including his 13th homer, and two RBIs, and Yoshitomo Tani came off the bench and had two RBI hits as Yomiuri topped host Yokohama and moved into second place,1.5 games back of the Swallows.

PACIFIC LEAGUE

BUFFALOES 12, HAWKS 7

Tomotaka Sakaguchi broke out of an 0-for-25 slump with a three-hit game that included his third homer, and two others homered as Orix clinched its series with SoftBank with a win in Kyushu.

Mitsutaka Goto slugged a three-run shot and Aarom Baldiris had two hits and an RBI for Orix.

FIGHTERS 6, MARINES 1

Yu Darvish (16-4) won his career-high-tying 16th game with eight innings of one-run pitching, and Eiichi Koyano blasted a three-run homer in the sixth to break open a close game as Nippon Ham beat Lotte at The Q.

Darvish fanned nine while allowing five hits and two walks as the second-place Fighters pulled to within four games of first-place SoftBank.

EAGLES 4, LIONS 3

Takeshi Yamasaki ripped a mammoth three-run homer that barely stayed in the park at Morioka in Iwate, giving him 15 straight seasons of double figures in longballs as host Rakuten held off Seibu to win the first two in their series.

Third-year righty Ryohei Isaka (2-3) worked six shutout innings but the bullpen nearly blew it, allowing three runs in the seventh. Darrell Rasner eventually closed it out, facing the minimum in the ninth for his 10th save.