Birds on a wire …
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Some rights reserved.
Swallows flutter toward title
The Yakult Swallows look like they're flapping one healthy wing, but they're still flying toward the Central League title.
These birds will just have to go down to the wire.
The front-running Swallows on Sunday salvaged the finale against the cellar-dwelling Yokohama BayStars 4-3, thanks to a tiebreaking RBI single in the sixth by Hiroyasu Tanaka.
Tanaka had three hits and Kazuhiro Hatakeyama chipped in with his 23rd homer as Yakult kept its two-game lead over the Chunichi Dragons.
Lim Chang Yang made a mess in the ninth, allowing a run and putting the go-ahead runs on base before notching a shaky save -- No. 30.
DRAGONS 7, TIGERS 2
Kazuhiro Wada collected three hits and drove in three, and Chen Wei-yin (8-8) danced through trouble over seven shutout innings as Chunichi topped Hanshin at Koshien Stadium.
Motonobu Tanishige smacked a two-run homer in the fifth.
GIANTS 1, CARP 1
Hirokazu Sawamura worked 6.1 innings but the bullpen couldn’t hold the lead, allowing one of his runners to score on a wild pitch as Yomiuri and Hiroshima played to a time-limit tie at Tokyo Dome.
PACIFIC LEAGUE
EAGLES 5, BUFFALOES 4
Kazuo Matsui singled home the go-ahead run after Orix rallied to tie after being down 3-0 early and Rakuten held on to win at Kyocera Dome Osaka.
HAWKS 5 LIONS 3
Hitoshi Tamura notched his career 1,000th hit, an RBI single in the third, and was one of three Hawks with two hits as SoftBank completed a three-game sweep of host Seibu.
MARINES 6, FIGHTERS 5
Tadahito Iguchi slugged his first longball since June 19, a solo blast that proved to be the difference as Lotte edged Nippon Ham at The Q.