Grand stage …

Yano’s slam helps Giants finish September with win

The Yomiuri Giants are in third place in the Central League, but it seems like they’re on top of the world.

Pinch-hitter Kenji Yano slugged a grand slam that highlighted a seven-run eighth as the Giants battered the Hiroshima Carp bullpen for a 9-3 win at Tokyo Dome.

Shinnosuke Abe got the Giants the lead with a two-run double, and Yano -- who has spent much of the season on the farm -- blasted his first homer since Sept. 15 last year.

Yomuiri, which has 15 games left, is three back of the second-place Chunichi Dragons, who lost at Koshien.

Giants skipper Tatsunori Hara wasn’t ready for parade planning yet.

“It wasn’t a bad game and I hope we can use it to get some momentum going, but today is today,” Hara said in a postgame TV interview.

“Tomorrow is tomorrow. We have to focus on each game because they’re all critical now. We’ll work hard to do the things we can do. We’ll come back tomorrow ready to play hard.”

Abe, batting in the No. 4 hole, drove in three, while CL batting leader Hisayoshi Chono had two hits and an RBI.

Alex Ramirez had two hits for the Giants, who are six games out of first.

TIGERS 3, DRAGONS 1

Takahiro Arai broke a scoreless tie with a fourth-inning two-run blast and Craig Brazell followed with a solo shot as Hanshin knocked off Chunichi at Koshien Stadium.

BAYSTARS 5, SWALLOWS 0

Daisuke Miura (4-4) scattered five hits with no walks over eight innings, and Keijiro Matsumoto drove in two runs as host Yokohama blanked Yakult.

PACIFIC LEAGUE

HAWKS 4, LIONS 3

Fifth-year reserve Shuhei Fukuda slugged his first career homer and later broke a 3-3 tie by bouncing a single through the right side in the seventh inning as SoftBank dropped its magic number to win its 15th PL title to one with a win over host Seibu.

Hiroyuki Nakajima knocked in his single-season career-best 93rd run, and Takeya Nakamura slugged his Japan-leading 44th longball [tying his career high for one month with 11], but Fumiya Nishiguchi (9-7) couldn’t hold a 3-0 lead.

The Hawks saw their magic number slip to one when the Fighters lost at Chiba. SoftBank can win the title with a win or another Nippon Ham loss.

MARINES 5, FIGHTERS 4

Yoshifumi Okada had three hits and two RBIs, and Katsuya Kakunaka doubled and later drove in the game winner in the bottom of the ninth with his second single to lead Lotte in a comeback win over second-place Nippon Ham.

Shota Ishimine also had three hits as the Marines came back from an early three-run deficit. The Fighters' lead over second-place Orix slipped to 1.5 games.

BUFFALOES 2, EAGLES 1

Chihiro Kaneko (10-3) outdueled Rakuten ace Hisashi Iwakuma (6-6), and hot-hitting Mitsutaka Goto had two hits, included the game winner in the eighth as Orix topped the Eagles at Kyocera Dome Osaka.

The Buffaloes won their 18th game of the month, and Goto recorded his 44th hit of the month, reaching base for the 39th consecutive game. He hit .630 the past week.