Flash forward …

Ueno stones Hawks,

The Lotte Marines have been mostly down coming last year's Japan Series victory, but a night after tumbling back into last place in the Pacific League, they had a peek at the near future.

Hiroki Ueno, a 2008 draft pick, has roller-coasted through his eight starts, but he shut down the front-running SoftBank Hawks on Friday, holding them to two hits and a walk over eight innings in a 2-0 victory at The Q.

The righty (3-3) fanned six and held the heart of the SoftBank order to a combined 0-for-11 with three strikeouts. Yasuhiko Yabuta worked a perfect ninth for his 27th save.

The Marines, who are 21 games behind the Hawks, are six games in back of Orix for the third and final Climax Series berth.

Jose Castillo gave Ueno the lead in the bottom of the first with an RBI single off loser Toshiya Sugiuchi (7-7), who two outs into his outing reached 1,500 career innings pitched. But he allowed 11 hits over the distance and lost his career-worst fourth straight.

FIGHTERS 10, EAGLES 3

Yang Zhong-shou sparked an eight-run sixth inning with the third of his four hits, and Yoshio Itoi had two hits and three RBIs as Nippon Ham rallied to end a six-game skid with a win over Rakuten at The Kleenex Box.

Yang had two RBIs, as did slugger Sho Nakata, who blasted his first homer in 80 trips to the plate in the ninth inning.

LIONS 4, BUFFALOES 0

Kazuyuki Hoashi (8-5) twirled a four-hitter and Yasuyuki Kataoka had two hits and two RBIs as Seibu blanked Orix at Kyocera Dome Osaka to halt the Buffaloes’ nine-game winning streak.

Hoashi fanned walked two and fanned four in his first shutout of the season for his team-high eighth win.

CENTRAL LEAGUE

SWALLOWS 4, TIGERS 2

Wladimir Baltentien cracked a two-run homer after being dropped to the No. 7 hole, and ace Shohei Tateyama returned to the first team from injury with 7.1 innings of two-run ball as Yakult stretched its CL lead to five games by beating Hanshin at Jingu Stadium.

It was the first win for Tateyama (9-2) since July 19. He was deactivated in August because of finger problems on his pitching hand.

CARP 6, GIANTS 3

Yoshihiro Maru cleared the bases in the first inning with a double and Kenta Kurihara and Yoshiyuki Ishikawa both went deep for Hiroshima in a victory at Tokyo Dome.

Giancarlo Alvarado (3-5) worked 6.2 strong innings and Dennis Sarfate notched his Japan-best 34th save for the Carp.

DRAGONS 6, BAYSTARS 0

Kazuki Yoshimi (13-3) scattered three hits and fanned nine with no walks over the distance, and Tony Blanco blasted his ninth homer as Chunichi blanked lowly Yokohama at Nagoya Dome.