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Some rights reserved.
The Rakuten Eagles hadn’t beat a team in a game with just one run scored since blanking the SoftBank Hawks last year.
Rakuten’s 1-0 win on Sunday over the defending Japan Series champion Hawks in Kumamoto was a rare feat for a team that had to deactivate its ace because of lower-back stiffness. Righty Kenji Tomura (1-0) stepped up with six scoreless innings, and Yosuke Takasu’s third-inning RBI double was the key knock in a game in which both teams squandered scoring chances.
The third-year Tomura surrendered eight hits and walked three, while fanning just three in Rakuten's first 1-0 win since last July 30. The Hawks had runners on base in every inning except the eighth. Closer Darrell Rasner walked a man in the ninth but closed it out for his fourth save.
MARINES 6, LIONS 4
Ikuhiro Kiyota lofted a wind-aided two-run double that capped a three-run rally in the eighth that lifted Lotte past slumping Seibu at The Q.
The Lions had taken a one-run lead in the seventh on a two-out RBI single by Takeya Nakamura, but the pen couldn’t hold it.
FIGHTERS 1, BUFFALOES 0
Shinya Tsuruoka broke a scoreless tie with a scoring flyball in the eighth, and lefty Mitsuo Yoshikawa (2-1) worked seven scoreless innings as Nippon Ham blanked Orix in Kobe.
The teams combined for just six hits, one of which was a leadoff double in the eighth by Yang Zhong-shou, who carried home the game’s lone run.
CENTRAL LEAGUE
TIGERS 11, BAYSTARS 3
Yamato Maeda broke out with two triples -- tying a CL record -- and a double for a career-high six RBIs in his first three-hit game as Hanshin pummeled host Yokohama.
Kenji Jojima, making his first start in six games, doubled and singled to drive in four, and Takahiro Arai added three hits as Hanshin avoided a sweep.
DRAGONS 3, CARP 2
Yohei Oshima lofted an opposite-field double over a drawn-in outfield to plate the go-ahead run in the ninth off closer Dennis Sarfate (0-1) as Chunichi edged Hiroshima at The Zoom for its fifth straight win.
Masahiro Yamamoto held the Carp to a run over seven innings, but reigning CL MVP Takuya Asao (1-0) gave up the tying run in the eighth and ended up with the victory.
SWALLOWS 2, GIANTS 1
Orlando Roman (1-3) went 5.1 innings and Lastings Milledge doubled in the tiebreaking run in the fifth as Yakult kept Yomiuri in the CL basement with a win at Jingu Stadium.
Tony Barnette, the fourth Yakult reliever to face the minimum, tossed a perfect ninth for his seventh save.
[Edited by: jgibson on Apr 28, 2012 10:23 PM]