Another crowning moment ...

Ma-Kun outduels ‘Handkerchief Prince’ as Eagles win

The last time Rakuten’s Masahiro Tanaka and Nippon Ham’s Yuki Saito faced each other was at the national high school summer tournament at Koshien Stadium in 2006.

Saito won that matchup, but he was the loser Saturday as Tanaka dominated until the ninth inning of a 4-1 victory at The Kleenex Box.

Tanaka (15-4) walked in a run to blow the shutout, but closed out his ninth complete game this year – the 26th of his five-year career – to beat the rookie Saito (5-4), who went the distance for the first time as a pro.

“This pitching matchup has been something that has been discussed a lot and finally it happened today,” Tanaka said in the hero interview.

“It makes me really happy to have this many fans come here to see it. I just have to apologize for the ninth inning. I wanted to close it out with a zero, but I’ll just have to try to do it next time,” said Tanaka, who won his fifth straight decision.

Saito, known as the “Handkerchief Prince” because he wiped his sweat-drenched brow during that now-classic high school tournament, chose college at Waseda University over a chance to turn pro out of high school.

Tanaka, who matched his career high in victories with his 15th win, has won in double digits in every year but one since he opted to turn pro out of high school. He punched out 12 while scattering five hits and a walk.

Saito surrendered 10 hits with a walk and one K on a career-high 123 pitches.

Yosuke Takasu had three hits and Motohiro Shima capped a three-run rally in the sixth with an RBI single that gave Rakuten a 4-0 lead.

HAWKS 18, MARINES 3

Seiichi Uchikawa had three hits, including a homer and a double, and five RBIs to lead a 22-hit attack for 18 runs [both Japan season bests] as SoftBank rebounded from a shutout the previous day with a rout over Lotte at The Q.

LIONS 7, BUFFALOES 5

Takeya Nakamura blasted his Japan-high 39th homer and added a hit and an RBI, and one of Hiroyuki Nakajima’s two hits was a solo shot that helped carry Seibu past Orix in Kobe.

CENTRAL LEAGUE

SWALLOWS 6, TIGERS 2

Shingo Kawabata cracked a three-run homer in the third and five relievers combined to toss four scoreless innings as front-running Yakult won to take the first two of a three-game set at Jingu Stadium.

The Swallows remained five games up in the CL.

GIANTS 1, CARP 0

Kentaro Nishimura (7-1) fired 6.2 shutout innings and Alex Ramirez connected for his 18th homer as Yomiuri blanked Hiroshima at The Big Egg.

DRAGONS 4, BAYSTARS 3

Hirokazu Ibata’s two-run single in the eighth tied the score and Tony Blanco followed with an RBI single as Chunichi rallied past Yokohama, which went down to clinch its 10th straight losing season, the 46th in club history.